184 A VOYAGE TO Book IV, 



head and fíern between the main beams, and by 

 thruiting fome of thcfe deep in the water, and raifing 

 others, they bear away, luff up, tack, He to, and 

 perform all tlie other motions of a regular fhip : an 

 invention hitherto unknown to the moft intelligent 

 nations of Europe, and of which even the Indians 

 know only the mechanifm, their uncultivated minds 

 having never examined into the rationale of it. Had 

 this method of fleering been fooner known in Europe, 

 it would have alleviated the diilrefs of many a Ihip- 

 wreck, by faving numbers of lives; as in 1730, the 

 Genovel'a, one of his majcfty's frigates, being loft on 

 the Vibora, the Ihip's company made a ratt ; but com- 

 mitting themftlves to the waves, without any means 

 of directing their courfe, they only added fome me- 

 lancholy minutes to the term of their exiftence. Such 

 affeiting initances induced me to explain the reafon 

 and foundation of this method of fleering, in order 

 to render it of ufe in il:ch calamitous jun¿tures ; and, 

 that I may perform it with the greater accuracy, I 

 ihall make ufe of a fnoit memoir, drawn up by Don 

 George Juan. 



The direction, fays he, in which a fhip moves 

 before the wind, is perpendicular to the tail, as Meff', 

 Renau, in the Theor'ie de Miuimivres, chap. ii. art. i. 

 BeniouiUi, cap. i. art. 4. Piiot^ feét. ii. art. 13. have 

 demoniirated. And re-action being contrary and equal 

 to the aótion, the force with which the water oppofes 

 the motion of the vcilel, will be applied in a perpen- 

 dicular dirc6tiün to the tail, and continued from lee- 

 vyard to windward, impelling with more forcea greater 

 body than a Irnaller, in proportion to the fuperficies, 

 and the fquares of the lines of the angle of incidence, 

 fuppoiing their velocities equal. Whence it toUows, 

 that a Guara being ihovcd down in the fore-part of 

 the veffel, liiult make her luff up ; and by taking it 

 out, ihc will bear away or fall off. Likewife on a 

 jGuara's being fhoved down at theilern, fhe will bear 



away; 



