«779. and increafed to a ftrong gale, w h ich fplit fome o f our old'
. a|_ ‘ ■ fails, and made the running rig g in g very frequen tly giv e
w a y . T his gale lafted twelve h o u r s ; it then became more
Thurfday.25. moderate, and continued fo, till the 25th at noon, when.!
w e entirely loft it, and had only a ve ry ligh t air.
F.-iday 26. On the 26th in the morning, w e thought w e faw land to-
the Weft South Weft, but, after ru n n in g about fixteen
leagues in that diredtion, we found our m ifta k e ; and n igh t
comin g on, w e again fleered Weft.. Our latitude, at this
time, was 19° 45', w h ich was the greateft Southing w e
made in this ru n ; our. longitude was 183“, and variation
12" 45' Eaft. We continued in this courfe, w ith little-
Monday a9. alteration in the wind, till the 39th, when it Ihifted to the-
South Eaft and South South Eaft, and, for a few hours in.
the n ight, it was in the Weft; the weather be in g dark and
cloudy, w ith m u ch rain. We had met, for fome days paft,.
feveral turtles,, one o f which was the fmalleft I ever faw,
not exceeding three inches in length. We were alfo accompanied
b y man-of-w ar birds, and boobies o f an unufual
kind, b eing quite white (except the tip o f the w in g , whicha
was. black), and eafily miftaken, at firft fight, fo r gannets.
T h e ligh t winds w h ich we had met with for fome time
paft, with the prefent unfettled ftate o f the weather, and the-
little appearance o f any change for the better, induced Captain
Clerke to alter his plan o f ke ep in g within the tropical'
la titu d e s ; and accordingly, at fix this evening, we began,
to fleer North Weft by N o rth/at w hich time our latitude-
was 20’ 33', and our longitude 180° 40'. Du ring the:
continuance o f the ligh t winds, w hich prevailed almoft:
conftantly ever fince our departure from the Sandwich
Iflands, the weather was ve ry clofe, and the air hot and
fultr.y;
fu lt ry ; th e thermometer b e in g generally at 8o\ and fome-
times at 83’ . A ll this time, w e had a confiderable fw e ll <— v — >
from the North Eaft ; and in no period o f the voyage did
the ihips roll and ftrain fo violently.
A p r il.
In the morning o f the i l l o f April, the wind changed Thnrfdayi.
from the South Eaft to the North Eaft by Eaft, and b lew a
fre lh breeze, till th e morning o f the 4th, when it altered Sanday 4.
tw o points more to the Eaft, and b y noon increafed to a
ftrong ga le, w h ich lafted till the afternoon o f the yth, at- Monday 5.
tended with h a z y weather. It then a gain altered its direction
to the South Eaft, became more moderate, and was accompanied
b y heav y fhowers o f rain. D u rin g all this time,
w e kept fleering to the North Weft, againft a flow but reg
u la r current from that quarter, w hich caufed a confiant
variation from our reckon ing b y the log, o f fifteen miles
a day. On the 4th, be in g then in the latitude 26° j 7',
and longitude 173’ 30', w e palled prodigious quantities
o f w hat failors call Portuguefe men-of-war (hohthuria phy-
fa lis), and were alfo accompanied w ith a great number o f
fea birds, amongft w h ich we obferved, for the firft time, the
albatrofs and fheerwater.
On the 6th, at noon, we loft the trade wind, and were Tuefdayû.
fuddenly taken a-back, w ith the wind from I thé North
North Weft. At this time, our latitude was 290 50', and
our longitude 170* 1'. As the old running ropes were
conftantly b re aking in the late gales, we reeved what new
ones we had left, and made fuch other preparations, as
were neeeffary fo r the very different climate w ith w hich
w e were now Ihortly to encounter. T h e fine weather we
met with between the tropics, had not been idly fpent. The
carpenters found fufficient employment in repairing the
boats. T h e beft bower cable had been fo much damaged
4 b y