nine o'clock
The course we were steering was about south-south-west , and the captain predicted we should come out into the ocean to the _ westward _ of the Straits of Le Maire , and somewhere near the Cape itself . We should unquestionably make a great discovery ! The wind continued to back round , and soon got to be abaft the beam . We now shook our reefs out , one after another , and we had whole topsails on the vessel by nine o'clock . This was carrying hard , it must be owned ; but the skipper was determined to make hay while the sun shone . There were a few hours , when I think the ship went fifteen knots by the land , being so much favoured by the current . Little did we know the difficulties towards which we were rushing !