As for the place, neither they nor we could make any guess at what part of the country they should make the sea; but, as for us, we resolved to make the port St. Julian our first place to put in at, which is in the latitude of 50° 5' and that then, as wind and weather would permit, we would keep the coast as near as we could, till we came to Punta de St. Helena, where we would ride for some time, and, if possible, till we heard of them. We had but a cross voyage to the mouth of the Straits of Magellan, having contrary winds, as I have said, and sometimes bad weather; so that it was the 13th of December when we made an observation, and found ourselves in the latitude of 52° 30', which is just the height of Cape Victoria, at the mouth of the passage. Some of our officers were very much for passing the Straits, and not going about by Cape Horn; but the uncertainty of the winds in the passage, the danger of the currents, &c., made it by no means advisable, so we resolved to keep good sea-room. The 25th of December, we found ourselves in the latitude of 62° 30', and being Christmas-day, I feasted the men, and drank the health of our travellers. Our course was south-east-by-south, the wind south-west; then we changed our course, and went east for eight days, and having changed our course, stood away, without observation, east-north-east, and in two days more, made the land, on the east of the Strait de la Mare, so that we were obliged to stand away east-south-east to take more sea-room, when the wind veering to the south-by-east, a fresh gale, we stood boldly away due north, and running large, soon found that we were entered into the North Sea on Twelfth Day; for joy of which, and to celebrate the day, I gave every mess a piece of English beef, and a piece of Chilian pork, and made a great bowl of punch afore the mast, as well as in the great cabin, which made our men very cheerful, and instead of a twelfth cake, I gave the cook order to make every mess a good plum-pudding, which pleased them all as well. But while we were at our liquor and merry, the wind came about to the north-east and blew very hard, threatening us with a storm, and as the shore lay on our leeward quarter, we were not without apprehensions of being driven on some dangerous places, where we could have no shelter; I immediately therefore altered my course, and ran away east all night, to have as much sea-room as possible. The next day the wind abated, and hauling away to the east, we stood northward again, and then north-west in three days more, and we made land, which appeared to be the head island of Port St. Julian, on the north side of the port, where we ran in, and about an hour before sunset came to an anchor in eleven fathom good holding ground, latitude 49° 18'.