great way to the southward, which I made no doubt was the same that is
mentioned in the charts by the name of the New Islands. As I was
hauling out of this bay, I saw a long, low shoal of rocks, stretching
out for more than a league to the northward of us, and another of the
same kind lying between that and what we had taken for the northermost
of De Wert's Islands. This land, except the low part, which is not seen
till it is approached near, consists of high, craggy, barren rocks,
which in appearance very much resemble Staten Land. When I had got so
near as to discover the low land, I was quite embayed, and if it had
blown hard at S.W. so great a sea must have rolled in here as would have
rendered it almost impossible to claw off the shore; all ships,
therefore, that may hereafter navigate these parts, should avoid falling
in with it. The seals and birds here are innumerable; we saw also many
whales spouting about us, several of which were of an enormous size. Our
latitude now was 51° 27' S. longitude 63° 54' W.; the variation was 23°
30' E. In the evening we brought-to, and at day-break the next morning,
stood in for the north part of the island by the coast of which we had
been embayed: When we had got about four miles to the eastward, it fell
calm, and rained with great violence, during which there arose such a
swell as I never remember to have seen: It came from the westward, and
ran so quick and so high, that I expected every moment it would break:
It set us very fast towards the shore, which is as dangerous as any in
the world, and I could see the surge breaking at some distance from it,
mountains high: Happily for us a fresh gale sprang up at south-east,
with which, to our great joy, we were able to stand off; and if behoves
whoever shall afterwards come this way, to give the north part of this
island a good birth. After I had got to some distance, the weather being
thick, and it raining very hard, I brought-to. Our latitude was now
51°S. and longitude 63° 22' W.