104 THE TROPICS. 
South latitude, because this is not the usual 
track of merchants’ ships, nor has it been taken 
in voyages of discovery, so that I thought it 
not improbable that we might fall in with other 
unknown islands. In pursuance of this plan, 
we steered north-west, for the above mentioned 
parallel. An uninterrupted fresh south wind 
having carried us six hundred and sixty miles 
forwards in three days, brought us into the hot 
climate so suddenly, that we were much incon- 
venienced by it. The island of Juan Fernan- 
dez, whither the Spaniards, when masters in 
Chili, used to banish criminals and republicans, 
lay on our left, and the little uninhabited rocky 
islands of Felix and Ambrosia at a little dis- 
tance on our right. After rapidly gaining the 
Southern Tropic, our voyage, though pleasant, - 
was far more tranquil; the slightness of the 
motion between the Tropics, admits of employ- 
ment on board a ship, for which a sailor has 
generally little opportunity; even drawings 
may be executed in the neatest manner. 
On the 17th February we found ourselves 
under eighteen degrees of South latitude, and 
a hundred and five degrees longitude. The 
