ludes the Streight of Le Maire, and part of Staten Land,
I have laid down no land, nor traced out any shore, but what I saw
myself, and thus far it may be depended upon: The bays and inlets, of
which we saw only the openings, are not traced; it can, however,
scarcely be doubted but that most, if not all of them, afford
anchorage, wood and water. The Dutch squadron, commanded by Hermit,
certainly put into some of them in the year 1624: And it was Chapenham,
the vice-admiral of this squadron, who first discovered that the land of
Cape Horn consisted of a number of islands. The account, however, which
those who sailed in Hermit's fleet have given of these parts, is
extremely defective; and those of Schouton and Le Maire are still worse:
It is therefore no wonder that the charts hitherto published should be
erroneous, not only in laying down the land, but in the latitude and
longitude of the places they contain. I will, however, venture to
assert, that the longitude of few parts of the world is better
ascertained than that of the Streight of Le Maire, and Cape Horn, in the
chart now alluded to, as it was laid down by several observations of the
sun and moon that were made both by myself and Mr Green.[82]

[Footnote 82: This chart is necessarily omitted. Krusenstern, speaking
of the observations respecting the position of Cape St John, says,
"There are few cities in Europe, the geographical longitude of which is
determined with the same degree of accuracy as that of this barren rock,
in one of the roughest and most inhospitable islands of the globe. But
how infinitely important is this accuracy to the safety of shipping!" He
verified Cook's determination of the longitude of this cape.--E.]

The variation of the compass on this coast I found to be from 23 deg. to 25 deg.
E. except near Barnevelt's islands and Cape Horn, where we found it
less, and unsettled: Probably it is disturbed here by the land, as
Hermit's squadron, in this very place, found all their compasses differ
from each other. The declination of the dipping-needle, when set upon
shore in Success Bay, was 68 deg. 15' below the horizon.

Between Streight Le Maire and Cape Horn we found a current setting,
generally very strong, to the N.E. when we were in with the shore; but
lost it when we were at the distance of fifteen or twenty leagues.

On the 26th of January, we took our departure from Cape Horn, which lies
in latitude 55 deg. 53' S. longitude 68 deg. 13' W