When we were in Latitude 24°, a very ſingular circumſtance happened, which as it ſpread ſome alarm among my people, and awakened their ſuperſtitious apprehenſions, I ſhall beg leave to mention. About eight o'clock in the evening an animal roſe alongſide the ſhip, and uttered ſuch ſhrieks and tones of lamentation ſo like thoſe produced by the female human voice, when expreſſing the deepeſt diſtreſs, as to occaſion no ſmall degree of alarm among thoſe who firſt heard it. Theſe cries continued for upwards of three hours, and ſeemed to increaſe as the ſhip ſailed from it: I conjectured it to be a female ſeal that had loſt its cub, or a cub that had loſt its dam; but I never heard any noiſe whatever that approached ſo near thoſe ſounds which proceed from the organs of utterance in the human ſpecies. The crew conſidered this as another evil omen, and the difficulties of our ſituation were ſufficient, without the additional inconvenience of theſe accidental events, to cauſe any temporary depreſſion of thoſe ſpirits which were ſo neceſſary to meet the diſtreſſes we might be obliged to encounter.
As we ſailed up the coaſt of Chili and Peru, from the Latitude 38° South, we never had occaſion to reef from the ſtrength of the wind; while the barometer, from that