Aug7uft. and from Captain Campbell, I took every neceflary precau-
<— ■»----' tion by airing and drying the fhip with fires made betwixt
decks, fmoking, 8?c. and by obliging the people to air
their bedding, wa{h and dry their cloaths, whenever there
was an opportunity. A neglect of thefe things caufeth a
difagreeable fmell below, affects the air, and feldom fails
to, bring on ficknefs; but more efpecially in hot and wet
weather.
We now began to fee fame of thefe birds which are feid
never to fly far from land; that is, man of war, and tropic
birds, gannets, &c. No land, however, that we knew of,
could be nearer than eighty leagues.
Sunday 30. On the 30th, at noon, being in the latitude of a° 35' North,
longitude 70 36* Weft, and the wind having veered to the
Eaft of South, we tacked and ftretched to the S. W. In the
latitude of o° 52' North, longitude 9° 25' Weft, we had one
calm day, which gave us an opportunity of trying the current
in a boat. We found it fe.t to the North, one third of a
mile an hour. We had reafan to expect this, from the difference
we frequently found between the obferved latitude,
and that given by the log, and Mr. Kendal’s watch fhewed
us, that it fet to the Eaft alfo. This was fully confirmed by
the lunar obfervations ; when it appeared, that we were
3° 0' more to the Eaft than the common reckoning. At the
time of trying the current, the mercury in the thermometer
in the open air flood at 75 4 ; and when immerged in the
furface of the fea, at 74; but when immerged eighty fathoms
deep (where it remained fifteen minutes), when it
came up, the mercury flood at 66. At the fame time we
founded, without finding, bottom with a line of two hundred
and fifty fathoms.
The
The calm was fucceeded by a light breeze at S. W., which 1772-
kept veering by little and little to the South, and at laft to the ■ A- “- ‘ .
Eaftward of South, attended with dear ferene weather. At
length, on the 8th of September, we crofled the line in the
longitude of 8° Weft ; after which the ceremony of ducking,
8cc. generally pradlifed on this occafion, was not omitted.
The wind now veering more and more to the Eaft, and
blowing a gentle top-gallant gale, in eight days it carried
us into the latitude of 90 30' South, longitude 180 Weft. The
weather was pleafantj and we daily faw fame of thofe
birds which are looked upon as figns of the vicinity of land;
fuch as boobies, man of war, tropic birds, and gannets. We
fuppofed they came from the ifle of Saint Matthew, or
Afcenfxon; which ifles we mull have paired at no great
diftance.
On the 27th, in the latitude of 250 29', longitude 24° 54', Sunday 2?.
we difeovered a fail to the Weft, Handing after us. She was
a fnow; and the colours Ihe Ihewed, either a Portuguefe or
St. George’s Enfign; the diftance being too great to diftin-
guilh the one from the other; and I did not choofe to wait
to get nearer, or to fpeak with her.
The wind now began to be variable. It firft veered to the
North, where it remained two days with fair weather. Afterwards
it came round by the Weft to the South ; where it
remained two days longer, and after a few hours calm,
fprung up at S. W. But here it remained not long, before
it veered to S. E., Eaft, and to the North of Eaft; blew frefh,
and by fqualls, with Ihowers of rain.
With thefe winds we advanced but flowly, and without oaober
meeting with any thing remarkable till the nth of October, Sunaay u.
C 2 when