EXPLANATION OF THE PLATES. xîÎJC 



In addition to this, the Dutch Eaft-India Company do not 

 permit their fliips to remain there later than the month of 

 March, becaufe from that -period the Winds and the Cur- 

 rents fteadily fet in from the Weft, which drive the (hip- 

 ping oft the coaft : hence we fee, that this Current, which 

 comes from the Weft, in doubling the Cape, arrives there 

 in the month of April. 



'From the preceding pâflage, in Dampiers Treùi'ife on 

 ■IVinds, we have feen that this wefterly Current reached the 

 coafts of India toward the middle of May : I fliall produce 

 lïnothcr authority to prove that it reaches, about the middle 

 of June, the ifland of Tinian, which is much farther to the 

 Eaft. I ç.\Xx-iidi\\.{xQVL\ AnJGiis, Voyage^ chap. 14; in the 

 year 1742, dr^. the fubjed of the ifland of Tinian. " The 

 ** only good anchoring ground for large fliips is off the South- 

 ** Wcit part of the rfland. The bottom of this road is 

 " filled with rocks of coral, very iharp poititcd. It is unfafe 

 *' to anchor there from the middle of June to the middle of 

 ^* Oclober, which is the feafon of the wejlerly ?nsnfoons ; 

 ** and the danger is farther increafed by the extraordinary 

 ** rapidity of the current of the tide which fets in to the 

 ** Saxiih-fVeJly between this ifiand and that of Agnigan. 

 ** During the other eight months of the year, the weather 

 ** there is fteady." Obferve, by the way, that while the 

 monfoon, or the current, comes from the Weft, the tide 

 bears in a contrary direction between thofe two illands ; 

 which is a confirmation of what we have faid, that tides are, 

 for the moft part, only the counter-currents of general Cur- 

 rents forced through narrow ftraits. 



It is, accordingly, evident that this Current, which leaves 



our Pole in March, reaches the Cape of Good-Hope in 



VOL. I. d April, 



