On the 30th of May we had a view of the continent of Chili, distant about twelve or thirteen leagues; the land made exceeding high and uneven, and appeared quite white; what we saw being doubtless a part of the Cordilleras, which are always covered with snow. Though by this view of the land we ascertained our position, yet it gave us great uneasiness to find that we had so needlessly altered our course, when we were, in all probability, just upon the point of making the island; for the mortality amongst us was now increased to a most dreadful degree, and those who remained alive were utterly dispirited by this new disappointment, and the prospect of their longer continuance at sea. Our water too began to grow scarce; so that a general dejection prevailed amongst us, which added much to the virulence of the disease, and destroyed numbers of our best men; and to all these calamities there was added this vexatious circumstance, that when, after having got a sight of the {106} main, we tacked and stood to the westward in quest of the island, we were so much delayed by calms and contrary winds, that it cost us nine days to regain the westing which, when we stood to the eastward, we ran down in two. In this desponding condition, with a crazy ship, a great scarcity of fresh water, and a crew so universally diseased that there were not above ten fore-mast men in a watch capable of doing duty, and even some of these lame, and unable to go aloft: under these disheartening circumstances, we stood to the westward; and, on the 9th of June, at daybreak, we at last discovered the long-wished-for island of Juan Fernandes. With this discovery I shall close this chapter and the first book, after observing (which will furnish a very strong image of our unparalleled distresses) that by our suspecting ourselves to be to the westward of the island on the 28th of May, and in consequence of this standing in for the main, we lost between seventy and eighty of our men, whom we should doubtless have saved had we made the island that day, which, had we kept on our course for a few hours longer, we could not have failed to have done. {107} BOOK II CHAPTER I THE ARRIVAL OF THE "CENTURION" AT THE ISLAND OF JUAN FERNANDES, WITH A DESCRIPTION OF THAT ISLAND