Journal of a cruise made to the Pacific Ocean / by Captain David Porter, in the United States frigate Essex, in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814. Containing descriptions of the Cape de Verd Islands, coasts of Brazil, Patagonia, Chili, and Peru, and of the Gallapagos Islands.
- David Porter
- Date:
- [1815]
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: Journal of a cruise made to the Pacific Ocean / by Captain David Porter, in the United States frigate Essex, in the years 1812, 1813, and 1814. Containing descriptions of the Cape de Verd Islands, coasts of Brazil, Patagonia, Chili, and Peru, and of the Gallapagos Islands. Source: Wellcome Collection.
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![y] part of the world presents a more horrible aspect than Staten” shore ; while we were standing off, the whole sea, from the vio- duced. me to have ventured through it; but, thanks to the excel- lent qualitiés ‘of the ship, we received no material injury, although we were pitching our forecastle under with a heavy press of sail, and the violence of the sea was such, that it was impossible for any man to stand without grasping something to support himself. Those only can have an idea of our tormenting anxiety and dr ead, land of Terra del Fuego, who have, like us, supposed them- selves in danger of shipwreck, ona dreary, mhospitable, and iron- bound coast, inhabited only by savages, where there was scarcely a hope, that one of the crew would survive the fury of the storm and waves, or, even if he succeeded in getting on shore alive, enly to fall a victim to the merciless inhabitants of this gloomy re- gion; nor can he conceive the excess of our joy in discovering the land, unless he, in an instant, has been snatched from the danger ef destruction which seemed pending over him. Our fears and described. Had we been, as we supposed, to the northward of Cape St. Vincent, it would have required our utmost exertions, under the heaviest press of canvas, to have kept the ship from going on shore ; and the loss of a single spar, or the splitting ofa. top-sail, would have sealed our destruction. Our making the breakers in the manner we did, proved most fortunate, for had we passed through the streights without discovering the land, (which would have been the case, had we been one mile farther north,) I should have supposed myself to the east of Staten Land, and after running the distance which I believed necessary to clear Cape St. John’s, I should have steered a course that would have entangled us in the night with the rocks and breakers about Cape Horn; and had this happened, thick and hazy as the weather con- tinued, our destruction would have been inevitable, as we could nos. VOL. I. R ,](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b29286931_0077.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
