2i6 SPORTING ADVENTURES 



been made for their comfort, even to messing in 

 the gun-room, where there were only two 

 members. We shot some rare and curious birds 

 at this place, including several kinds of cranes, 

 and a boatbill ; one of our sportsmen also killed 

 a fine turkey, weighing ten pounds. Leaving 

 this port, we worked along the coast to the 

 northward, taking advantage of the sea-breeze 

 by day, and the land-breeze by night ; it is only 

 by closely observing the direction, force, and 

 duration of these winds, and the set of the 

 currents, that a passage can be made, under 

 sail, on these coasts. "We found that the sea- 

 breeze set in with tolerable regularity about 

 noon, at which time we endeavoured to place 

 the ship at such a distance from the land as to 

 enable us to make a long stretch on our course 

 till sundown, when the wind died away. By 

 this time we were generally about a mile from 

 the shore, where we lay becalmed, awaiting the 

 land-breeze, which usually reached us at ten or 

 eleven p.m. The first sign of this wind was 

 wafted off to us in the form of a strong smell 



