ST. AUGUSTIN TO BAHAMA ISLANDS 253 



ships sailing from Europe to the southern parts of 

 North America must cut through this stream at one 

 place or another. With fresh east winds this is easily 

 managed; however, if the winds are but light, or 

 should there be calms when the ships come into this 

 current, they are by its force imperceptibly to them 

 drawn out of their true course or driven back or at 

 least held within the stream, from which they do not 

 get free so soon as, from the strength of the wind 

 blowing, they judge they should. In this way errors 

 arise frequently in reckoning the course, and ship- 

 masters often find themselves mistaken when from 

 their observations they flatter themselves they are 

 already near the wished-for land. The Gulf Stream, 

 in the middle of the Atlantic ocean and farther north, 

 does not maintain one breadth, direction, and force; 

 for it is evident that the strength of powerful winds 

 and storms, even those at a distance and from opposite 

 directions, must work effects and fortuitous changes 

 in the ocean and in this current as well. In certain 

 circumstances the result is extremely tedious. During 

 the last war it has at times happened that ships bound 

 from New York for southern ports and seeking the 

 high sea in order to avoid hostile privateers, have 

 fallen into the strongest current of the Gulf Stream, 

 and wanting fresh and favorable winds have been 

 drawn away by the current's strength in a direction 

 quite opposite to that intended, and finally have been 

 glad to make the port again from which they sailed. 



The origin of the Gulf Stream is to be found chiefly 

 in the east winds continually blowing between the 

 Tropicks, and in the swing of the earth from west to 

 east. These are the two causes, but especially the 



