*793-
January.-
.Monday 21.
arid foeb of our Spanifh' friends ;as could be fpared from the brig, honored
me with their company to partake of a parting dinner.
The wind blew a gentle breeze from the north ; the ferenity o f the
Iky and fmoothnefs of the fea, prolonged my pleafure on this occalion
until near midnight; when we exchanged our mutual good wilhes, ’ and
bad our friends of the Aflive fa-rewel. Amongll all that valuable fociety,'
there was 'but one friend who we could reafonabiy hope and expeft to
fee again, whilft the profpefil o f never again meeting Sen'. Quadra and
our other friends about him, was a painful confideration.' T o the feelings
o f thofe perufers of this journal who have experienced moments
like this, I mull appeal. Their recollection will enable them to conceive
the fenfations which;- infpired by the grateful recollection o f pall kind-
nelfes, occurred in thus bidding adieu to Seri'1 Quadra ; who was the:
main fpring of a fociety that had produced us fo much happinefs, who
had rendered us fo many elfential benefits, and whofe benevolence and
difinterefled condufit had' imprelfed our minds with the higheil efteem
and veneration. On reaching the Aftive, our friends took their leave;
we faluted them with three cheers, which they-cordially returned; and
we each purfued our refpeftive voyages with all fail fet.
Nothing worthy of notice occurred until the 2 1 ft; when Jofeph
Murga-trpyd, one of the carpenter’s crew, was in the fpace of about a
quarter of an hour from the time he had been laft feen miffing. He
was laft obferved opening the gun-room ports, and whilft fo employed,
had probably been induced to feek his own deflruflion by'contriving
to let himfelf down into the fea; fince it was fcarcely’ poffible he could
have met his fate there by accident. An experiment was afterwards
made, by much fmaller men than himfelf, to force themfelves out of
the port-holes, which was not accompliffied without great difficulty
and trouble ; it. was however pretty evident that he muft have pe-
rilhed that way, as he was never feen to come out of the gunroom:
add to this, that as he was a good fwimmer, as the wind
blew only a gentle breeze, with a fmooth fea,; and as every, thing
was very quiet upon deck, it is natural to conclude, that i f he had fallen
■ overboard,
overboard, the accident muft have been immediately known, and that »793- ■■\ ' January.
he moll likely would have been preferved. i__ _— >
The weather continued dark and gloomy, with frequent fhowers, until
noon of the 23d; when the atmofphere became lefs loaded and more Wether. =3.
pleafant; the obferved latitude at this time was 25°54', the longitude,
by Kendall’s chronometer, 237°37'. Our progrefs was fo flow, that on
the.24th we had reached only the latitude o f 24°50'. The true longitude,
deduced from fubfequent obfervations, and corrected back to
our quitting the coaft, was at this time 236“ 14'. Kendall's chronometer
fhewed 236° 53'; Arnold’s No. 14, 236° 27'; No. 176, 236° 31';
Earnffiaw’s 236° 19'; and. Arnold’s, on board the Chatham, 236° 8':
from whence it appeared, that their refpeCtiye errors continued nearly in
the fame ratio as our obfervations had fhewn the day after we quitted
Monterrey.
The wind, though favorable between the n;h<e . and 14. n.w ., was
light, and frequently funk into a calm, attended with a. heavy rolling
fea from between weft and n. w.
In confequence o f my intention to determine the exiftence or non-
exiflence of a duller of iflands, defcribed in the.Spanifh charts as lying
between the igth and. 21ft degrees o f north latitude, and between
the 221ft and 225th degrees o f eaft longitude, I had been induced to freer
a .very eallerly courfe; but, -fufpeCting that the light winds-we had experienced
were occafioned by our vicinity to the continent, we fleered
a more wefterly courfe during the two laft days, with the hope of
meeting a frefher trade wind. In this I was difappointed, for inlfead of
having-a more favorable breeze, the wind veered round to the weft
and s.w., and fo continued until faturday evening, "when our latitude Saturday.16.
was 22° 10', the true longitude 236° 23’.
To this ftation the variation had gradually decreafed to 8°; and for
feme days pall we had regularly been affeCted by a current fetting us to
the fouth, at the rate of 7 or 8 miles per day; particularly during the preceding
twenty-four hours we had been fet 12 miles further fouth than
the log fhewed.
V o l . II. P In