four leagues
W.S.W. from Cape Deseada, lie some dangerous rocks, called by Sir John
Narborough the Judges, upon which a mountainous surf always breaks with
inconceivable fury. Four small islands, called the Islands of Direction,
are distant from Cape Pillar about eight leagues, in the direction of
N.W. by W. When we were off this cape it was stark calm; but I never saw
such a swell as rolled in here, nor such a surge as broke on each shore.
I expected every moment that the wind would spring up from its usual
quarter, and that the best which could happen to us would be to be
driven many leagues up the streight again. Contrary, however, to all
expectation, a fine steady gale sprung up at S. E. to which I spread all
the sail that it was possible for the ship to bear, and ran off from
this frightful and desolate coast at the rate of nine miles an hour; so
that by eight o'clock in the evening we had left it twenty leagues
behind us. And now, to make the ship as stiff as possible, I knocked
down our after bulk-head, and got two of the boats under the half-deck;
I also placed my twelve-oared cutter under the boom; so that we had
nothing upon the skids but the jolly-boat; and the alteration which this
made in the vessel is inconceivable: For the weight of the boats upon,
the skids made her crank, and in a great sea they were also in danger
of being lost.

It is probable, that whoever shall read this account of the difficulties
and dangers which attended our passage through the Streight of Magellan,
will conclude, that it ought never to be attempted again; but that all
ships which shall hereafter sail a western course from Europe into the
South Seas ought to go round Cape Horn. I, however, who have been twice
round Cape Horn, am of a different opinion. I think that at a proper
season of the year, not only a single vessel, but a large squadron might
pass the streight in less than three weeks; and I think, to take the
proper season, they should be at the eastern entrance some time in the
month of December.[33] One great advantage of this passage, is the
facility with which fish is almost every where to be procured, with wild
celery, scurvy-grass, berries, and many other vegetables in great
abundance; for to this I impute the healthiness of my ship's company,
not a single man being affected with the scurvy in the slightest degree,
nor upon the sick list for any other disorder, notwithstanding the
hardship and labour which they endu