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We sounded on the 14th December, having 15 fathoms on coarse red sand, two leagues from shore, the current setting S.E. along shore, and still we had heavy billows from the south. The 15th we were athwart a rock, somewhat like the Mewstone in England, and at the distance of 2 leagues from the rock, had ground in 27 fathoms.
But in the meanwhile, if they have fared no better than this against a third of the Plymouth fleet, how will they fare when those forty belated ships, which are already whitening the blue between them and the Mewstone, enter the scene to play their part? So ends the first day; not an English ship, hardly a man, is hurt. It has destroyed for ever, in English minds, the prestige of boastful Spain.
The man who had jumped into the sea was right glad to give up his "promiscuous" search, and to make for the life-buoy, upon which he perched himself, and stood shivering for half-an-hour, like a shag on the Mewstone, till the boat came to his relief.
Fine breezes and Clear weather. At 1/2 past 8 p.m. Anchored in the Entrance of Plymouth Sound in 9 fathoms water. At 4 a.m. weighed and worked into proper Anchoring ground, and Anchored in 6 fathoms, the Mewstone South-East, Mount Batten North-North-East 1/2 East, and Drake's Island North by West. Dispatched an Express to London for Mr. Banks and Dr.
As no person in the ship I was on board had been on this coast before, we consulted a little chart, published by Steele, of the Minories, London, and found it, in general, very correct; it would be more so, were not the Mewstone laid down at too great a distance from the land, and one object made of the Eddystone and Swilly, when, in fact, they are distinct.
We had much bad weather with snow and hail, and in our approach to Van Diemen's Land nothing was seen to indicate the nearness of the coast, except a seal, when we were within the distance of 20 leagues. Tuesday 19. At ten o'clock this afternoon we saw the rock named the Mewstone, that lies near the south-west cape of Van Diemen's Land, bearing north-east about six leagues.
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