and on this account we began to serve their full allowance of grog. The weather now becoming more moderate, and the swell less heavy, we were enabled to clear away the rest of the casks from the fore-hold, and to open a sufficient passage for the water to the pumps. This day we saw a greenish piece of drift-wood, and fancying the water coloured, we sounded, but got no bottom with a hundred and sixty fathoms of line. Our latitude at noon this day was 41 deg. 52', longitude 161 deg. 15', variation 6 deg. 30' E.; and the wind soon after veering to the northward, we altered our course three points to the west. On the 16th at noon, we were in the latitude of 42 deg. 12', and in the longitude of 160 deg. 5'; and as we were now approaching the place where a great extent of land is said to have been seen by De Gama, we were glad of the opportunity which the course we were steering gave, of contributing to remove the doubts, if any should be still entertained, respecting the falsehood of this pretended discovery. For it is to be observed, that no one has ever yet been able to find who John de Gama was, when he lived, or what year this pretended discovery was made. According to Mr Muller, the first account of it given to the public was in a chart published by Texeira, a Portuguese geographer, in 1649, who places it ten or twelve degrees to the north-east of Japan, between the latitudes of 44 deg. and 45 deg.; and announces it to be _land seen by John de Gama, the Indian, in a voyage from China to New Spain_. On what grounds the French geographers have since removed it five degrees to the eastward, does not appear; except we suppose it to have been done in order to make room for another discovery made by the Dutch, called _Company's Land_; of which we shall have occasion to speak hereafter. During the whole day the wind was exceedingly unsettled, being seldom steady to two or three points, and blowing in fresh gusts, which were succeeded by dead calms. These were not unpromising appearances; but after standing off and on the whole of this day, without seeing anything of the land, we again steered to the northward, not thinking it worth our while to lose time in search of an object, the opinion of whose existence had been already pretty generally exploded. Our people were employed the whole of the 16th, in getting their wet things dry, and in airing the ships below.