It was from a persuasion that the sea-coast of a land situated in the latitude of 54°, could not, in the very height of summer, be wholly covered with snow, that I supposed Bouvet’s discovery to be large islands of ice. But after I had seen this land, I no longer hesitated about the existence of Cape Circumcision; nor did I doubt that I should find more land than I should have time to explore. With these ideas I quitted this coast, and directed my course to the E. S. E. for the land we had seen the preceding day. The wind was very variable till noon, when it fixed at N. N. E., and blew a gentle gale; but it increased in such a manner, that, before three o’clock, we were reduced to our two courses, and obliged to strike top-gallant yards. We were very fortunate in getting clear of the land before this gale overtook us, it being hard to say what might have been the consequence had it come on while we were on the north coast. This storm was of short duration, for at eight o’clock it began to abate, and at midnight it was little wind. We then took the opportunity to sound, but found no bottom with a line of an hundred and eighty fathoms. Next day the storm was succeeded by a thick fog, attended with rain; the wind veered to N. W., and at five in the morning it fell calm, which continued till eight, and then we got a breeze southerly, with which we stood to the east till three in the afternoon. The weather then coming somewhat clear, we made sail and steered north in search of the land; but at half past six we were again involved in a thick mist, which made it necessary to haul the wind, and spend the night in making short boards. We had variable light airs, next to a calm, and thick foggy weather, till half-past seven o’clock in the evening of the 22d, when we got a fine breeze at N., and the weather was so clear that we could see two or three leagues round us. We seized the opportunity, and steered to west; judging we were to the east of the land. After running ten miles to the west, the weather became again foggy, and we hauled the wind, and spent the night under top-sails. Next morning, at six o’clock, the fog clearing away so that we could see three or four miles, I took the opportunity to steer again to the W., with the wind at E., a fresh breeze; but two hours after, a thick fog once more obliged us to haul the wind to the south. At eleven o’clock, a short interval of clear weather gave us a view of three or four rocky islets, extending from S. E. to E. N. E., two or three miles distant; but we did not see the Sugar-loaf Peak before-mentioned. Indeed, two or three miles was the extent of our horizon.