Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly vol. 24.djvu/456

 424 Charles Henry Carey these high latitudes. Mr. Wright, our consumption suf- ferer, appears to be failing very fast ; poor man, I expect he will find his grave in the deep. Monday, 25. A very fair wind. Lat. 48.22. Lon. 103.20. Thursday, 28. We are highly favored in having so few gales and fierce winds in this high southern latitude. Our progress is not very rapid, yet we are approaching Cape Horn with considerable speed. It is cool upon deck. Thermometer 42. The deck is wet by the dashing waves which pass over it very freely. We keep in the cabin the most of the time where we are the most comfortable we ever have been at sea, having a stock of plenty of room and plenty good company. Lat. 52.10. Lon. 92.19. Some- times a little anxiety will arise about the success and speed of our voyage. Providence will order all right. A thought will occasionally arise about the uncertainty and treacherousness of the elements on which we are so dependent in our present situation, and we know not the amount of peril to which we are exposed from Mexican privateers and if possible the more unprincipled pirates who roam over the deep to find their prey. Saturday, 30. We are met by opposing winds so that we are unable to keep our course; we fall some to the north of east, whereas our course is nearly south east; we must make a few degrees of latitude south before we can go much further east so as to pass Tierra del Fuego, a little out from Cape Horn. It is cold upon deck, with light squalls of snow. Ther. 38. Lat. 52.30. Lon. 86.23. [1847] Monday, November 1. About noon today the wind comes round so that our ship is headed the right or desirable course; a few days of favorable wind, with the blessing of a kind Providence, will put us round the far famed Cape. My health is poor, I hardly know how to account for it. The inactivity of so long a voyage,