CHAPTER IV
TERRA DEL FUEGO TO OTAHITE
Jan. 21—April 12, 1769
Leave Terra del Fuego—Cape Horn—Albatross and other birds, etc.—Multiplication of Dagysa—Cuttlefish—Cross the line drawn by the Royal Society between the South Sea and the Pacific Ocean—Tropic birds—Occultation of Saturn—Freshness of the water taken on board at Terra del Fuego—Speculations respecting a southern continent—Marine animals—Suicide of a marine—Scurvy—Lemon juice—Lagoon Island—King George III. Island—Means adopted for preventing the scurvy—Preserved cabbage.
21st January 1769. Sailed this morning, the wind foul; but our keeping-boxes being full of new plants, we little regarded any wind, provided it was but moderate enough to let the draughtsmen work, who, to do them justice, are now so used to the sea that it must blow a gale of wind before they leave off.
25th. Wind to-day north-west; stood in with some large islands, but we could not tell for certain whether we saw any part of the mainland. At some distance the land formed a bluff head, within which another appeared, though but faintly, farther to the southward. Possibly that might be Cape Horn, but a fog which overcast it almost immediately after we saw it, hindered our making any material observations upon it; so that all we can say is, that it was the southernmost land we saw, and does not answer badly to the description of Cape Horn given by the French, who place it upon an island, and say that it is two bluff headlands (vide Histoire des Navigat. aux terres australes, tom. i. p. 356).
