s within a
cable's length of them: When she swung with her stern in shore, we had
sixteen fathom, with coral rock; when she swung off, we had fifty
fathom, with sandy ground. Cape Notch bore from us W. by S. 1/2 W.
distant about one league; and in the intermediate space there was a
large lagoon which we could not sound, the wind blowing too hard all the
while we lay here. After we had moored the ship, we sent two boats to
assist the Swallow, and one to look out for anchorage beyond Cape Notch.
The boats that were sent to assist the Swallow, towed her into a small
bay, where, as the wind was southerly, and blew fresh, she was in great
danger, for the cove was not only small, but full of rocks, and open to
the southeasterly winds.

All the day following and all the night, we had hard gales, with a great
sea, and much hail and rain. The next morning, we had gusts so violent,
that it was impossible to stand the deck; they brought whole sheets of
water all the way from Cape Notch, which was a league distant, quite
over the deck. They did not last more than a minute, but were so
frequent, that the cables were kept on a constant strain, and there was
the greatest reason to fear that they would give way. It was a general
opinion that the Swallow could not possibly ride it out, and some of the
men were so strongly prepossessed with the notion of her being lost,
that they fancied they saw some of her people coming over the rocks
towards our ship. The weather continued so bad, till Saturday the 7th,
that we could send no boat to enquire after her; but the gale being then
more moderate, a boat was dispatched about four o'clock in the morning,
which, about the same hour in the afternoon, returned with an account
that the ship was safe, but that the fatigue of the people had been
incredible, the whole crew having been upon the deck near three days and
three nights. At midnight the gusts returned, though not with equal
violence, with hail, sleet, and snow. The weather being now extremely
cold, and the people never dry, I got up, the next morning, eleven bales
of thick woollen stuff, called fearnought, which is provided by the
government, and set all the tailors to work to make them into jackets,
of which every man in the ship had one.

I ordered these jackets to be made very large, allowing, one with
another, two yards and thirty-four inches of the cloth to each jacket. I
sent also seven bales of the same cloth to the Swallow, which