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KERGUELEN’S VOYAGE TO THE NORTH. 743
elearnefs, I faw feveral veffels which were making for different ports to fhield themfelves
from the threatened {ftorm. For my part, I preferred the gulph of Patrixfiord, becaufe
one of the directors of the Danifh company refided there, and the whole of the coaft
offered fo fecure a road that, ufing an expreflion of Virgil, we may juftly denominate it,
“¢ Sedes tutiflima navi.”” J] entered the gulph, founding all the way, I found continually
from thirty to thirty-five fathoms water with a muddy bottom, and when I had doubled
the warehoufes of the company, which I left to leeward a quarter of a league diftant, I
anchored in twenty-two fathoms, with a muddy bottom. I ftopped with the anchor
a-peak for fometime, while we founded all round the frigate, and, when I found no dan-
ger to be apprehended, I let out eighty fathom of cable, and moored S. E. and N. W.
I then bore N. N. E. upon the warehoufes of the director, the pyramids of {tone which
are the point of the gravel lying N. five degrees E., and the firlt point out of the gulph
bearing N. W. a quarter N., five degrees N. 1 could have anchored nearer the fhore
more deep in the inlet, but it would not have been fo advantageous a pofition to fail
from. ‘The proper time to anchor is on bearing N. and S, of the point of gravel.
As foon as my frigate was moored, I went to the director of the Danifh company,
whom I informed that the bad weather had forced me to anchor there ; that the king of
France had fent me to preferve a proper difcipline and good order among the fifher–
men, and to hinder their trading with the inhabitants of Iceland, or doing any thing
which might be confidered as infringing the privileges of the company. ‘The direétor:
received me with a cool civility, and did not appear to give much credit to what I faid.
It had been told him, that there were three French frigates in that latitude, for the pur-
pofe of protecting a {muggling trade with the inhabitants, and that we certainly had bad
defigns ; but very foon he was difluaded from fuch an opinion, and convinced of the
contrary. ‘The order which I preferved quickly deftroyed the wrong impreffions which
had been ftamped on his mind refpeéting us.. I always kept a guard in my row-boats,
never fuffered any but the officers to go on fhore, and, for any thing I wanted, addrefled
myfelf to the director.
The day after my arriving in the bay, the wind being ftill N. W., the {ky clear, and
the weather fufficiently mild, I founded the roadfted, and took bearings. For feveral
days I continued the fame employment. I determined the pofition of the principal
points by means of a rule with copper mountings, furnifhed with a telefcope, and con-
trived to form a plan of the bay, on which reliance may be placed, as well for luffing
as for anchoring, although not laid down with the niceft precifion.
The twenty-ninth, at noon, a violent gale of wind arofe from the N. E. which
lafted forty-eight hours. As I was moored at the foot of a high mountain which co-
vered the ftation, the fea did not run very high; but the fwiftnefs of the clouds, and
the whiftling of the wind in the rigging fhewed the force of the gale. The cold was
intolerable ; Reaumur’s thermometer was on the thirtieth at 4° below o. The ftorm
drove to the entrance of the bay feveral large fragments of ice, detached in all proba-
bility from the frozen ocean, which I had had fight of. The fight of thefe iflets of ice
furprized me lefs than the information which I received of the road of Patrixfiord
having been, as it were covered with ice on the fourteenth of May. This is however
what the director told me, as well as feveral of my officers. ‘Ihe ftorm occafioned
thirty-fix fifhing veffels, French and Dutch, to go into port; feveral of which had re-
ceived damage, which I caufed to be repaired with diligence; fo that in three days fuch
as had been injured were in condition to return to fea.
SECOND
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