22
VOYAGE TO THE SOUTH SEAS.
health and ſpirits, we made ſail, if it became moderate, only for half an hour; and, at length, fairly beat round the land of Terra del Fuego. No ſooner had we attained this object, than we had fine weather, with a Southerly wind; which promiſed favourably, to my preſent intention of examining Wager Iſland, on the Weſt coaſt of Patagonia, which we ſaw on April 28.the twenty-eighth, at midnight.
Wager Iſle is high and rugged, and may be ſeen at the diſtance of fourteen or fifteen leagues. It is about five or ſix leagues in length, and lays, by compaſs, nearly in a North and South direction, with many iſlets off both North and South ends. I place the body of it in Latitude 46° 30′, and Longitude 76° Weſt. On the weſtern ſide, where nothing grows but a ſmall quantity of green moſs, it wears a very barren appearance, and the diſtant hills, bearing Eaſt 25° North, I believe, were mountains on the main land, covered with ſnow. Capt. Cheap, who commanded the Wager, one of Lord Anſon's ſquadron, has given a full deſcription of this iſland, where he was unfortunately caſt away[1]. My deſign in making it, was to obtain ſome knowledge of Anna Pink Bay and Harbour, but the coaſt was ſo forbidding, and the weather of ſuch a dark, hazy, and wintry aſpect, as to diſcourage me from perſevering in it. Beſides, having doubled Cape Horn at the preciſe time of the year when Lord Anſon went round it, and being at Wager Iſle within a fortnight of the time, when- ↑ In the year 1741.
