48 AVOYAGETO 



'776. tion after leavin? the Cape de Verde Iflands, till we got to 



November. 01 •-' 



the Southward. For in this fituation the wind came South- 

 erly, and we tacked and flretchcd to the Weftward ; and, 

 for two or three days, could not find that our reckoning was 

 affefted by any current. So that, I judged, we were be- 

 tween the current that generally, if not conftantly, fets to 

 the Eaft upon the coaft of Guinea, and that which fets to 

 the Weft towards the coaft of Brafil. 



This Weflerly current was not considerable till we got into 

 2° North, and aj" Weft. From this ftation, to 3° South and 

 30° Weft, the fliip, in the fpace of four days, was carried 

 one hundred and fifteen miles in the diredlion of South 

 Weft by Weft, beyond her reckoning ; an error by far too 

 great to have any other caufe but a ftrong current running 

 in the fame direction. Nor did its ftrcngth abate here ; but 

 its courfe was, afterward, more Wefterly, and to the North 

 of Weft; and off" Cape Auguftine, North, as I have already 

 mentioned. But this Northerly current did not exift at 

 twenty or thirty leagues to the Southward of that Cape ; 

 nor any other, that I could perceive, in the remaining part of 

 the palTage. The little difference we afterward found be- 

 tween the reckoning and obfervations, might very well 

 happen without the affiftance of currents ; as will appear 

 by the Table of Days Works. 



In the account of my laft voyage *, I remarked, that the 

 currents one meets with in this pafTage generally balance 

 each other. It happened fo then ; becaufe we crofted the 

 line about 20° more to the Eaftward than we did now ; fo 

 that we were, of confequence, longer under the infltience 

 of the Eafterly current, which made up for the Wefterly one. 



* Captain Cook's Voyage, Vol. I. p. 14. 



And 



