About four o'clock we anchored in Port Famine Bay, in thirteen fathom, and there being little wind, sent all the boats, and towed in the Swallow and Prince Frederick.
The next morning, the weather being squally, we warped the ship farther into the harbour, and moored her with a cable each way in nine fathom. I then sent a party of men to pitch two large tents in the bottom of the bay, for the sick, the wooders, and the sail-makers, who were soon after sent on shore, with the surgeon, the gunner, and some midshipmen. Cape St Anne now bore N.E. by E. distant three quarters of a mile, and Sedger river S. 1/2 W.
On the 28th we unbent all the sails, and sent them on shore to be repaired, erected tents upon the banks of Sedger river, and sent all the empty casks on shore, with the coopers to trim them, and a mate and ten men to wash and fill them. We also hauled the seine, and caught fish in great plenty: Some of them resembled a mullet, but the flesh was very soft; and among them were a few smelts, some of which were twenty inches long, and weighed four-and-twenty ounces.
During our whole stay in this place we caught fish enough to furnish one meal a day both for the sick and the well: We found also great plenty of celery and pea-tops, which were boiled with the pease and portable soup. Besides these, we gathered great quantities of fruit that resembled the cranberry, and the leaves of a shrub somewhat like our thorn, which were remarkably sour. When we arrived, all our people began to look pale and meagre; many had the scurvy to a great degree, and upon others there were manifest signs of its approach; yet in a fortnight there was not a scorbutic person in either of the ships. Their recovery was effected by their being on shore, eating plenty of vegetables, being obliged to wash their apparel, and keep their persons clean by daily bathing in the sea.
The next day we set up the forge on shore; and from this time, the armourers, carpenters, and the rest of the people, were employed in refitting the ship, and making her ready for the sea.
In the mean time a considerable quantity of wood was cut, and put on board the store-ship, to be sent to Falkland's Island; and as I well knew there was no wood growing there, I caused some thousands of young trees to be carefully taken up with their roots, and a proper quantity of earth; and, packing them in the best manner I could, I put them also on board the store-ship, with orders to deliver them to the commanding officer at Port Egmont, and to sail for that place with the first fair wind, putting on board two of my seamen, who, being in an ill state of health when they first came on board, were now altogether unfit to proceed in the voyage.
On Wednesday the 14th of January we got all our people and tents on board; having taken in seventy-five tons of water from the shore, and twelve months provisions of all kinds, at whole allowance for ourselves, and ten months for the Swallow, from on board the store-ship, I sent the master in the cutter, which was victualled for a week, to look out for anchoring-places on the north shore of the streight.
After several attempts to sail, the weather obliged us to continue in our old station till Saturday the 17th, when the Prince Frederick victualler sailed for Falkland's Island, and the master returned from his expedition. The master reported that he had found four places in which there was good anchorage, between the place were we lay and Cape Froward: That he had been on shore at several places, where he had found plenty of wood and water close to the beach, with abundance of cranberries and wild celery. He reported also, that he had seen a great number of currant bushes full of fruit, though none of it was ripe, and a great variety of beautiful shrubs in full blossom, bearing flowers of different colours, particularly red, purple, yellow, and white, besides great plenty of the Winter's bark, a grateful spice which is well known to the botanists of Europe. He shot several wild ducks, geese, gulls, a hawk, and two or three of the birds which the sailors call a race-horse.
At five o'clock in the morning of Sunday the 18th we made sail, and at noon, being about two miles from the shore, Cape Froward bore N. by E. a bluff point N.N.W. and Cape Holland W. 1/2 S. Our latitude at this place, by observation, was 54° 3' S. and we found the streight to be about six miles wide. Soon after I sent a boat into Snug Bay, to lie at the anchoring-place, but the wind coming from the land, I stood off again all night; and at a mile from the shore we had no ground with 140 fathom.
In the morning of Monday the 19th, the Swallow having made the signal for anchoring under Cape Holland, we ran in, and anchored in ten fathom, with a clear sandy bottom. Upon sending the boats out to sound, we discovered that we were very near a reef of rocks; we therefore tripped the anchor, and dropped farther out, where we had twelve fathom, and were about half a mile from the shore, just opposite to a large stream of water, which falls with great rapidity from the mountains, for the land here is of a stupendous height. Cape Holland bore W.S.W. 1/2 W. distant two miles, and Cape Froward E. Our latitude, by observation, was 53° 58' S.