On the 25th, about noon, the weather became more moderate, which enabled us to sway up our yards, and to repair, in the best manner we could, our shattered rigging, but still we had no sight of the rest of our squadron, nor indeed were we joined by any of them again till after our arrival at Juan Fernandes, nor did any two of them, as we have since learned, continue in company together. This total and almost instantaneous separation was the more wonderful as we had hitherto kept together for seven weeks, through all the reiterated tempests of this turbulent climate. It must indeed be owned that we had hence room to expect that we might make our passage in a shorter time than if we had continued together, because we could now make the best of our way without being retarded by the misfortunes of the other ships; but then we had the melancholy reflection that we ourselves were hereby deprived of the assistance of others, and our safety would depend upon our single ship, so that if a plank started, or any other accident of the same nature should take place, we must all irrecoverably perish; or should we be driven on shore, we had the uncomfortable prospect of ending our days on some desolate coast, without any reasonable hope of ever getting off again, whereas, with another ship in company, all these calamities are much less formidable, since in every kind of danger there would be some probability that one ship at least might escape, and might be capable of preserving or relieving the crew of the other.
The remaining part of this month of April we had generally hard gales, although we had been every day, since the 22d, edging to the northward; however, on the last day of the month, we flattered ourselves with the expectation of soon terminating all our sufferings, for we that day found ourselves in the latitude of 52° 13', which being to the northward of the Streights of Magellan, we were assured that we had compleated our passage, and had arrived in the confines of the southern ocean; and this ocean being denominated Pacifick, from the equability of the seasons which are said to prevail there, and the facility and security with which navigation is there carried on, we doubted not but we should be speedily cheared with the moderate gales, the smooth water, { 100} and the temperate air for which that track of the globe has been so renowned. And under the influence of these pleasing circumstances we hoped to experience some kind of compensation for the complicated miseries which had so constantly attended us for the last eight weeks. But here we were again disappointed, for in the succeeding month of May our sufferings rose to a much higher pitch than they had ever yet done, whether we consider the violence of the storms, the shattering of our sails and rigging, or the diminishing and weakening of our crew by deaths and sickness, and the probable prospect of our total destruction. All this will be sufficiently evident from the following circumstantial account of our diversified misfortunes.