Having sailed till the 27th, in different degrees of latitude, extending from 43 to 55 deg.

48' south, he gave up all hopes of finding any more land in this ocean.

He came, therefore, to the resolution of steering directly for the west entrance of the Straits of Magalhaens, with a view of coasting the south side of Terra del Fuego, round Cape Horn, to the Strait Le Maire.

As the world had hitherto obtained but a very imperfect knowledge of this shore, the captain thought that the full survey of it would be more advantageous, both to navigation and geography, than any thing he could expect to find in a higher latitude.
In the prosecution of his voyage, our commander, on the 17th of December, reached the west coast of Terra del Fuego; and having continued to range it till the 20th, he came to an anchor in a place to which he afterwards gave the name of Christmas Sound.

Through the whole course of his various navigations, he had never seen so desolate a coast.