And now the whole squadron, instead of pursuing their
intended course to the south-west, were driven to the eastward by the
united force of the storm and of the currents; so that next day in the
morning we found ourselves near seven leagues to the eastward of Staten
Land. The violence of the current, which had set us with so much
precipitation to the eastward, together with the force and constancy of
the westerly winds, soon taught us to consider the doubling of Cape Horn
as an enterprise that might prove too mighty for our efforts, though some
amongst us had lately treated the difficulties which former voyagers were
said to have met with in this undertaking as little better than
chimerical, and had supposed them to arise rather from timidity and
unskilfulness than from the real embarrassments of the winds and seas.
But we were severely convinced that these censures were rash and
ill-grounded, for the distresses with which we struggled during the three
succeeding months will not easily be paralleled in the relation of any
former naval expedition.
From the storm which came on before we had well got clear of Straits le
Maire, we had a continual succession of such tempestuous weather as
surprised the oldest and most experienced mariners on board, and obliged
them to confess that what they had hitherto called storms were
inconsiderable gales compared with the violence of these winds, which
raised such short and at the same time such mountainous waves as greatly
surpassed in danger all seas known in any other part of the globe.
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