"Captain Kidd's death made a revolution by promotion amongst us, and I was appointed first lieutenant of the Commodore; but my predecessor, to whose command the sloop descended, was taken dangerously ill, and became incapable of taking possession of his charge. I was ordered to take the command until his recovery; and here I must confess to you, I was sanguine enough to flatter myself with the same addition of good fortune, some favourable crisis in my behalf: but I was born to be unfortunate. "We sailed hence on the 27th of February 1741: my station was a-head of the squadron, to keep sounding and make timely signals of danger. "The 4th of March we discovered the entrance of the Strait of Magellan, and on the 7th passed through the Strait le Main, lying at the extremity of Terra del Fuego, between that and Staten Land. "This day was remarkably warm and favourable, and though in latitude 55 deg. 50' South, we began to look on the conquest of the Peruvian mines and principal towns in the Pacific sea as an amusement, which would naturally occur. From this time forward, we met with nothing but disasters and accidents. Never were the passions of hope and fear so powerfully agitated and exercised; the very elements seemed combined against us. I commanded the sloop at the time of the separation of the ships that returned home, being stationed to look out for islands of ice; and had to endure such fatigue from the severity of the weather, and the duty which the nature of the service necessarily brought on me, that really my life was hardly worth preserving at the expense of such hardships. Our own ships had several miraculous escapes, which, in the obscurity of the night and the violence of the weather, often endangered foundering the sloop. "Having had the command of the sloop several weeks, I was at length superseded by her proper captain, who had recovered on board the Commodore's ship; and I returned to my post. "During this time, the scurvy made terrible havoc among us, especially the soldiers, who, being either infirm old men or raw inexperienced youths, soon lost their spirits, grew sick and disabled, and from the stench they occasioned, contributed to infect our seamen.