Sir Thomas Candish seems not to have been aware, that the
month of May, in these high antarctic or southern latitudes, was
precisely analogous with November in the high latitudes of the north,
and therefore utterly unfit for navigation. - E.]
Intending again to have attempted passing through the straits, he was
tossed up and down in the tempestuous seas of the Southern Atlantic, and
came even at one time within two leagues of St Helena, but was unable to
reach that island. In his last letter, he declares that, rather than
return to England after so many disasters, he would willingly have gone
ashore in an island placed in lat. 8 deg. in the charts. In this letter, he
states himself to be then scarcely able to hold a pen; and we learn that
he soon afterwards died of grief. The Leicester, in which Candish
sailed, came home, as did the Desire. The Black pinnace was lost; but
the fates of the Roebuck and the Dainty are no where mentioned.
The miscarriage of this voyage was certainly prejudicial to the rising
trade and spirit of naval adventure in England. The ruin of Sir Thomas
Candish threw a damp on such undertakings among the English gentlemen;
and, on the return of these ships, several able and experienced seamen
were turned adrift, to gain their livings as they best might.
