y, the 13th of April, we passed a great quantity of gulph
weed; and on the 17th, we passed a great deal more. On the 19th, we saw
two flocks of birds, and observing the water to be discoloured, we
thought the ground might be reached, but, upon sounding, could find no
bottom.

At five o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 24th, we saw the peak of
the island of Pico bearing N.N.E. at the distance of about eighteen
leagues. We found, by observation, that Fyal lies in latitude 38 deg. 20'
N., longitude 28 deg. 30' W. from London.

No incident worth recording happened till about noon on the 11th of May,
when, being in latitude 48 deg. 44' N., longitude 7 deg. 16' W. we saw a ship in
chace of a sloop, at which she fired several guns. We bore away, and at
three, fired a gun at the chace, and brought her to; the ship to
windward, being near the chace, immediately sent a boat on board her,
and soon after, Captain Hammond, of his majesty's sloop the Savage, came
on board of me, and told me, that the vessel he had chaced, when he
first saw her, was in company with an Irish wherry, and that as soon as
they discovered him to be a man of war, they took different ways; the
wherry hauled the wind, and the other vessel bore away. That he at first
hauled the wind, and stood after the wherry, but finding that he gained
no ground, he bore away after the other vessel, which probably would
also have escaped, if I had not stopped her, for that he gained very
little ground in the chace. She appeared to be laden with tea, brandy,
and other goods, from Roscoe in France; and though she was steering a
south-west course, pretended to be bound to Bergen in Norway. She
belonged to Liverpool, was called the Jenny, and commanded by one Robert
Christian. Her brandy and tea were in small kegs and bags; and all
appearances being strongly against her, I detained her, in order to be
sent to England.

At half an hour after five, on the 13th, we saw the islands of Scilly;
on the 19th, I landed at Hastings in Sussex; and at four the next
morning, the ship anchored safely in the Downs, it being just 637 days
since her weighing anchor in Plymouth Sound. To this narrative, I have
only to add, that the object of the voyage being discovery, it was my
constant practice, during the whole time of my navigating those parts of
the sea which are not perfectly known, to lie-to every night, and make
sail only in the day, that nothing might escape me.

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