sight, bore east, distant ten leagues. This is a
lofty promontory, lying E.S.E, nineteen leagues from Gilbert isle, and
situated in latitude 55 deg. 26' S, longitude 70 deg. 25' W. Viewed from the
situation we now were in, it terminated in two high towers; and, within
them, a hill shaped like a sugar-loaf. This wild rock, therefore, obtained
the name of York Minster. Two leagues to the westward of this head appeared
a large inlet, the west point of which we fetched in with by nine o'clock,
when we tacked in forty-one fathoms water, half a league from the shore; to
the westward of this inlet was another, with several islands lying in the
entrance.

During the night between the 19th and 20th we had little wind easterly,
which in the morning veered to N.E. and N.N.E., but it was too faint to be
of use; and at ten we had a calm, when we observed the ship to drive from
off the shore out to sea. We had made the same observation the day before.
This must have been occasioned by a current; and the melting of the snow
increasing, the inland waters will cause a stream to run out of most of
these inlets. At noon we observed in latitude 55 deg. 39' 30" S., York Minster
then bearing N. 15 deg. E., distant five leagues; and Round-hill, just peeping
above the horizon, which we judged to belong to the isles of St Ildefonso,
E. 25 deg. S., ten or eleven leagues distant. At ten o'clock, a breeze
springing up at E. by S., I took this opportunity to stand in for the land,
being desirous of going into one of the many ports which seemed open to
receive us, in order to take a view of the country, and to recruit our
stock of wood and water.

In standing in for an opening, which appeared on the east side of York
Minster, we had forty, thirty-seven, fifty, and sixty fathoms water, a
bottom of small stones and shells. When we had the last soundings, we were
nearly in the middle between the two points that form the entrance to the
inlet, which we observed to branch into two arms, both of them lying in
nearly north, and disjoined by an high rocky point. We stood for the
eastern branch as being clear of islets; and after passing a black rocky
one, lying without the point just mentioned, we sounded, and found no
bottom with a line of an hundred and seventy fathoms. This was altogether
unexpected, and a circumstance that would not have been regarded if the
breeze had continued; but at this time it fell calm, so that it was not
possible to extricate ou