13f2 cook's voyage to not. 



On the contrary, if we find the ship ahead of the 

 reckoning on one day, and astern of it on another, 

 we have reason to believe that such errors are owing 

 to accidental causes, and not to currents. This 

 seems to have been the case in our passage between 

 England and Teneriffe. But, from the time of our 

 leaving that island, till the 15th of August, being 

 then in the latitude of 12 N., and longitude 24 

 W., ,the ship was carried 1 20' of longitude to 

 the westward of her reckoning. At this station, 

 the currents took a contrary direction, and set to 

 E. S. E., at the rate of twelve or fourteen miles a 

 day, or twenty-four hours, till we arrived into the 

 latitude of 5 N., and longitude of 20 W. ; which 

 was our most easterly situation after leaving the 

 Cape de Verde Islands, till we got to the southward. 

 For in this situation the wind came southerly, and 

 we tacked and stretched to the westward ; and for 

 two or three days could not find that our reckoning 

 was affected by any current. So that, I judged, we 

 were between the current that generally, if not con- 

 stantly, sets to the east upon the coast of Guinea, 

 and that w T hich sets to the west towards the coast of 

 Brasil. 



This westerly current was not considerable till 

 we got into 2 N., and 25 W. From this station, to 

 3 S. and 30 W., the ship, in the space of four 

 days, was carried one hundred and fifteen miles in 

 the direction of S. W. by W., beyond her reckoning ; 

 an error by far too great to have any other cause but 

 a strong current running in the same direction. Nor 

 did its strength abate here ; but its course was, 

 afterward, more westerly, and to the N. of W. ; 

 and off' Cape Augustine, north, as I have already 

 mentioned. But this northerly current did not 

 exist at twenty or thirty leagues to the southward of 

 that Cape, nor any other, that I could perceive, in 

 the remaining part of the passage. The little dif- 

 ference we afterward found between the reckoning 



