We were kept busy in baling out the water, which also came in from above.
The breeze was gentle, the sea more calm than we could have hoped, and the real danger did not lie in the risks of navigation.

No, it arose from the fact that not a ship was visible in these waters, not a whaler was to be seen on the fishing-grounds.

At the beginning of April these places are forsaken, and we arrived some weeks too late.
We learned afterwards that had we arrived a little sooner, we should have met the vessels of the American expedition.
In fact, on the 1st of February, by 95 deg.

50' longitude and 64 deg.
17' latitude, Lieutenant Wilkes was still exploring these seas in one of his ships, the Vincennes, after having discovered a long extent of coast stretching from east to west.

On the approach of the bad season, he returned to Hobart Town, in Tasmania.