At half an hour after five, in the morning of the 24th, as we were purchasing the anchor, the cable parted at about eight or ten fathom from the ring: the ship then began to drive, but I immediately dropped another anchor, which brought her up before she got more than a cable’s length from the buoy; the boats were then sent to sweep for the anchor, but could not succeed. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 10° 30ʹ S. As I was resolved not to leave the anchor behind, while there remained a possibility of recovering it, I sent the boats again after dinner, with a small line, to discover where it lay; this being happily effected, we swept for it with a hawser, and by the same hawser hove the ship up to it: we proceeded to weigh it, but just as we were about to ship it, the hawser slipped, and we had all our labour to repeat. By this time it was dark, and we were obliged to suspend our operations till the morning. As soon as it was light, we sweeped it again, and heaved it to the bows; by eight o’clock, we weighed the other anchor, got under sail, and, with a fine breeze at E. N. E., stood to the north-west. At noon, our latitude, by observation, was 10° 18ʹ S., longitude 219° 39ʹ W. At this time we had no land in sight, but about two miles to the southward of us lay a large shoal, upon which the sea broke with great violence, and part of which, I believe, is dry at low water. It extends N. W. and S. E., and is about five leagues in circuit. Our depth of water, from the time we weighed till now, was nine fathom, but it soon shallowed to seven fathom; and at half an hour after one, having run eleven miles between noon and that time, the boat which was a-head made the signal for shoal water; we immediately let go an anchor, and brought the ship up with all the sails standing, for the boat having just been relieved, was at but a little distance: upon looking out from the ship, we saw shoal water almost all round us, both wind and tide at the same time setting upon it. The ship was in six fathom, but upon sounding round her, at the distance of half a cable’s length, we found scarcely two. This shoal reached from the east, round by the north and west, as far as the south-west, so that there was no way for us to get clear but that which we came. This was another hair’s-breadth escape, for it was near high-water, and there run a short cockling sea, which must very soon have bulged the ship if she had struck; and if her direction had been half a cable’s length more either to the right or left, she must have struck before the signal for the shoal was made. The shoals which, like these, lie a fathom or two under water, are the most dangerous of any, for they do not discover themselves till the vessel is just upon them, and then indeed the water looks brown, as if it reflected a dark cloud. Between three and four o’clock, the tide of ebb began to make, and I sent the master to sound to the southward and south-westward, and in the