Having at this time of the year much bad weather, and very heavy gales of wind, I must observe, that I had, as well as many others, believed till now, that the gales had never blown upon the coast in such a direction, but that a ship, on being close in with the land when such a gale commenced, might gain an offing on one tack or the other; but we now found, that those gales are as variable in their direction upon this coast as any other during the winter season: I would, therefore, recommend it to ships bound to any port here to the southward of latitude 30 deg. 00' south, at this time of the year to get in or near the parallel of their port, before they attempt to make the land; as in that case, if a gale from the eastward should take them when near the land, they would have their port under their lee, for it would be next to an impossibility for a ship to keep off the land with such a sea as these gales occasion. In the month of July, our scorbutic patients seemed to be rather worse; the want of a little fresh food for the sick was very much felt, and fish at this time were very scarce: such of the natives as we met seemed to be in a miserable and starving condition from that scarcity. We frequently fell in with families living in the hollow part of the rocks by the sea-side, where they eagerly watched every opportunity of moderate weather to provide shell or other fish for their present subsistence: if a bird was shot, and thrown to them, they would immediately pluck off the feathers, put it upon the fire without taking out the intestines, and eat the whole; sometimes they did not pull off the feathers, and, if it were a small bird, did not even throw the bones away. This season, in which fish is so scarce, subjects these poor creatures to great distress, at least we were apt to believe so; they were frequently found gathering a kind of root in the woods, which they broiled on the fire, then beat it between two stones until it was quite soft; this they chew until they have extracted all the nutritive part, and afterwards throw it away. This root appears to be a species of the orchis, or has much of its nutritive quality.