it proper, they were at liberty to release the convicts from the fetters
in which they had been hitherto confined. In complying with these
directions, I had great pleasure in being able to extend this humane
order to the whole of those under my charge, without a single exception.
It is hardly necessary for me to say, that the precaution of ironing the
convicts at any time reached to the men only.

In the evening of the same day, the Hyena left us for England, which
afforded an early opportunity of writing to our friends, and easing
their apprehensions by a communication of the favourable accounts it was
in our power to send them.

From this time to the day of our making the land, little occurred worthy
of remark. I cannot, however, help noticing the propriety of employing
the marines on a service which requires activity and exertion at sea, in
preference to other troops. Had a regiment recruited since the war
been sent out, sea-sickness would have incapacitated half the men from
performing the duties immediately and indispensably necessary; whereas
the marines, from being accustomed to serve on board ship, accommodated
themselves with ease to every exigency, and surmounted every difficulty.

At daybreak, on the morning of the 30th of May we saw the rocks named
the Deserters, which lie off the south-east end of Madeira; and found
the south-east extremity of the most southerly of them, to be in the
latitude of 32 deg 28 min north, longitude 16 deg 17 1/2 min west of
Greenwich. The following day we saw the Salvages, a cluster of rocks
which are placed between the Madeiras and Canary Islands, and determined
the latitude of the middle of the Great Salvage to be 30 deg 12 min
north, and the longitude of its eastern side to be 15 deg 39 min west.
It is no less extraordinary than unpardonable, that in some very modern