at the same time rolling in; so that, knowing the ground to be foul, we
were in constant apprehension of parting our cables, in which case we
must have been almost instantly dashed to atoms against the rocks that
were just to leeward of us, and upon which the sea broke with
inconceivable fury, and a noise not less loud than thunder. We lowered
all the main and fore-yards, let go the small bower, veered a cable and
a half on the best bower, and having bent the sheet-cable, stood by the
anchor all the rest of the day, and till midnight, the sea often
breaking half way up our main shrouds. About one in the morning, the
weather became somewhat more moderate, but continued to be very dark,
rainy, and tempestuous, till midnight, when the wind shifted to the S.W.
and soon afterwards it became comparatively calm and clear.

The next morning, which was the first of April, we had a stark calm,
with now and then some light airs from the eastward; but the weather was
again, thick with hard rain, and we found a current setting strongly to
the eastward. At four o'clock we got up the lower yards, unbent the
sheet-cable, and weighed the small bower; at eight we weighed the best
bower, and found the cable very much rubbed in several places, which we
considered as a great misfortune, it being a fine new cable, which
never had been wet before. At eleven, we hove short on the
stream-anchor; but soon after, it being calm, and a thick fog coming on
with hard rain, we veered away the stream-cable, and with a warp to the
Tamar, heaved the ship upon the bank again, and let go the small bower
in two-and-twenty fathom.

At six in the evening, we had strong gales at W.N.W. with violent
squalls and much rain, and continued in our station till the morning of
the 3d, when I sent the Tamar's boat, with an officer from each ship, to
the westward, in search of anchoring-places on the south shore; and at