favourable paſſage, and were in a ſtate to be enlivened by the ſea-birds who flew twittering around us.
During the ſucceeding twenty-four hours, the winds varied from North Weſt to North Eaſt, and became at laſt very changeable. The paſt hour we were hurried along by a ſtrong gale, and the next at reſt in a dead calm. At noon our Latitude was 47° 30′, Longitude 48° 40′, with a very heavy irregular ſea, in which the ſhip greatly laboured: This laſted, however, but for a few moments, when a heavy gale from the South Weſt ſprang up, which was accompanied with rain, hail and ſnow.
Under reefed fore-ſail, and cloſe-reefed main-top-ſail, all the ſail we could carry, we ſhaped our courſe, on the neareſt angle, to Saint Helena, but before midnight, the ſea roſe to a prodigious height, broke on board of us, and ſtove in the dead lights, filled the after part of the ſhip with water, rendered uſeleſs a chronometer, a ſextant, and deſtroyed charts and drawings that I had been ſeven months employed in completing: alſo damaged every thing in the cabin. We ſoon, however, fixed and ſecured temporary dead lights, and pumped out the water, but ſome of the miſchief done was irreparable.
