312 A VOYAGE TO Book IX. 



voyages they had with them ; for the currents being 

 ftronger at fome times than others, they who followed 

 the former made a much larger allowance than thofe 

 who regulated their corredions by the latterj and con- 

 fequently their reckonings muft have been very differ- 

 ent. The currents therefore being uncertain, and the 

 journals of thofe voyages very variable with regard to 

 their velocity, there is no more fecurity in following 

 one than another, and even if we take a medium be- 

 tween them, there would be no more fafety in relying 

 upon it, than blindly to follow that which was thought 

 the bed. However, their utility and even importance 

 cannot be denied, as they inform the navigator of the 

 parts where he muft expefl to meet with currents, and 

 at the fame time warn him of their variety. 



One caule of the litde knowledge we have of thefe 

 currents is, that this voyage is feldom made, and lefs 

 by the Spaniards than by any other maritime nation; 

 and though fince the year 1716 feveral French fliips 

 have failed into thofe feas, they have not yet been able 

 to remove this difficulty, and fettle the times of the 

 f'^veral degrees of velocity of the currents in the differ- 

 ent lantudes paiTed through in weathering the Cape. 

 This is indeed only to be expeded from long experi- 

 ence and repeated voyages i and in order to this navi- 

 gators ihould not make any allowance for iheir currents 

 in corredling their days worksi for the dillance between 

 the knots on the log-line being truly adjufted as ours 

 was, at forty-feven Paris feet and one third, and the 

 half-minute glafs carefully attended to, the error in the 

 diftance will be very inconfiderable, and confcquently 

 the drift of the current, on making land, known very 

 near the truth; and this muft be added to or deduéled 

 from the reckoning by account. By purfuing this me- 

 thod we ihall advance one ftcp towards a more certain 

 knowledge of them. 



Though we are not yet able to determine the ve- 

 locity of the currents, nor the times of their fctting, 



yet 



