General observations on this navigation.
I reckon the whole length of the strait, from Cape Virgin (Mary) to Cape Pillar, at about one hundred and fourteen leagues. We employed fifty-two days to make them. I must repeat here, that from Cape Virgin to Cape Noir, we have constantly found the flood tide to set to the eastward, and the ebb to the westward,and that the tides are very strong; that they are not by much so rapid from Cape Noir to Port Galant, and that their direction is irregular there; that lastly, from Port Galant to Cape Quade, the tides are violent; that we have not found them very considerable from this cape to Cape Pillar, but that in all this part from Port Galant, the water is subject to the same laws which put them in motion from Cape Virgin; viz. that the flood runs towards the easterly, and the ebb towards the westerly seas. I must at the same time mention, that this assertion concerning the direction of the tides in the strait of Magalhaens, is absolutely contrary to what other navigators say they have observed there on this head. However, it would not be well if every one gave another account.
Upon the whole, how often have we regretted that we had not got the Journals of Narborough and Beauchesne, such as they came from their own hands, and that we were obliged to consult disfigured extracts of them: besides the affectation of the authors of such extracts, of curtailing every thing which is useful merely in navigation; likewise, when some details escape them that have a relation to that science, their ignorance of the sea-phrases makes them mistake necessary and usual expressions for vicious words, and they replace them by absurdities. Alltheir aim is to compile a work agreeable to the effeminate people of both sexes, and their labour ends in composing a book that tires every body’s patience, and is useful to nobody[88].
Conclusions drawn from hence.
Notwithstanding the difficulties which we have met with in our passage of the strait of Magalhaens, I would always advise to prefer this course to that of doubling Cape Horn, from the month of September to the end of March. During the other months of the year, when the nights are sixteen, seventeen, and eighteen hours long, I would pass through the open sea. The wind a-head, and a high sea, are not dangerous; whereas, it is not safe to be under a necessity of sailing blindfold between the shores. Certainly there will be some obstacles in passing the straits, but this retardment is not entirely time lost. There is water, wood, and shells in abundance, sometimes there are likewise very good fish; and I make no doubt but the scurvy would make more havock among a crew, who shouldcome into the South Seas by the way of Cape Horn, than among those who should enter the same Seas through the straits of Magalhaens: when we left it, we had no sick person on board.
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