161 deg.W., which was
about one thousand eight hundred leagues to the westward of the
continent of America, and in all this track we had no indication of a
continent. The men now began to be very sickly, the scurvy having made
great progress among them, and as I found that all my endeavours to keep
in a high southern latitude at this time were ineffectual, and that the
badness of the weather, the variableness of the winds, and above all,
the defects of the ship, rendered our progress slow, I thought it
absolutely necessary to fix upon that course which was most likely to
preserve the vessel and the crew; instead therefore of attempting to
return back by the south-east, in which, considering our condition, and
the advanced season of the year, it was scarcely possible that we should
succeed, I bore away to the northward, that I might get into the
trade-wind, keeping still in such a track, as if the charts were to be
trusted, was most likely to bring me to some island, where the
refreshments of which we stood so much in need might be procured
intending then, if the ship could be put in a proper condition, to have
pursued the voyage to the southward, when the fit season should return,
to have attempted farther discoveries in this track; and, if I should
discover a continent, and procure a sufficient supply of provisions
there, to keep along the coast to the southward till the sun had crossed
the equinoctial, and then, getting into a high southern latitude, either
have gone west about to the Cape of Good Hope, or returned to the
eastward, and having touched at Falkland's Islands, if necessary, made
the best of my way from thence back to Europe.

When I got into latitude 16 deg. S. and not before, I found the true
trade-wind; and as we proceeded to the north-west, and the northward, we
found the variation increase very fast; for when we had advanced to
latitude 18 deg. 15' S. and were in longitude 80 deg. 1/4 W. of our departure,
it was 7 deg. 30' E. We had bad weather, with hard gales, and a great sea
from the eastward till the 25th, when, being in latitude 12 deg. 15' S., we
saw many birds flying in flocks, and supposed ourselves to be near some
land, particularly several islands that are laid down in the charts, and
one which was seen by Commodore Byron in 1765, and called the Island of
Danger; none of these islands, however, could we see. At this time it
blew so hard, that, although we went before the wind, we were obliged