it was land and, the land we sought for, it was to us a most
agreeable sight. For at this place only we could hope to put a period to
those terrible calamities we had so long struggled with, which had
already swept away above half our crew, and which, had we continued a few
days longer at sea, would inevitably have completed our destruction. For
we were by this time reduced to so helpless a condition, that out of two
hundred and odd men who remained alive, we could not, taking all our
watches together, muster hands enough to work the ship on an emergency,
though we included the officers, their servants, and the boys.

The wind being northerly when we first made the island, we kept plying
all that day and the next night, in order to get in with the land; and
wearing the ship in the middle watch, we had a melancholy instance of the
most incredible debility of our people; for the lieutenant could muster
no more than two quarter-masters and six foremast men capable of working;
so that without the assistance of the officers, servants, and boys, it
might have proved impossible for us to have reached the island after we
had got sight of it; and even with this assistance they were two hours in
trimming the sails. To so wretched a condition was a 60-gun ship reduced,
which had passed Straits le Maire but three months before, with between
four hundred and five hundred men, almost all of them in health and
vigour.

EVEN GRASS A DAINTY.

However, on the 10th, in the afternoon, we got under the lee of the
island, and kept ranging along it at about two miles' distance, in order
to look out for the proper anchorage, which was described to be in a bay
on the north side. But at last the night closed upon us before we had
satisfied ourselves which was the proper bay to anchor in, and therefore
we resolved to send our boat next morning to discover the road. At four
in the morning the cutter was despatched with our third lieutenant to
find out the bay we were in search of, who returned again at noon with
the boat laden with seals and grass; for though the island abounded with
better vegetables, yet the boat's crew, in their short stay, had not met
with them; and they well knew that even grass would prove a dainty, and,
indeed, it was all soon and eagerly devoured. The seals, too, were
considered as fresh provision, but as yet were not much admired, though
they grew afterwards into more repute; for what rendered them less
valuable at this