360 OBSERVATIONS ON THE CURRENTS. 



velocity of about a mile an hour, directing itself toward the coast about 

 Cartagena. From this point, and in the space of sea comprehended be- 

 tween lat. 14'^ and the coast (the Bay of Guatemala), it has, however, been 

 observed, that in the dry season the current runs to the Westward, and 

 in the season of the rains, to the Eastward. 



" On the Mosquito SJiore, and in the Bay of Honduras, no rule cari be 

 given for the alterations of the Current. All that can be said is, at a good 

 distance from land, it has generally been found setting towards the N.W." 



(332.) The Baron Alexander von Humboldt, in describing his passage 

 from Cumana, Westward, to La Guayra, said : — " The general motion of 

 the waters between the Tropics towards the West is felt strongly on the 

 coast during two-thirds of the year only. In the months of September, 

 October, and November, the Current often flows towardrthe East, for 

 fifteen or twenty days in succession. Vessels on their way from La Guayra 

 to Port Cabello have been known to be unable to stem the current that 

 runs from West to East, although they had the wind astern. The cause 

 of these anomaUes is not yet discovered. The pilots think that they are 

 the effect of some gales of wind from the N.W. in the Gulf of Mexico ; 

 yet these gales are much more violent in spring than in autumn. It is 

 also remarkable, that the Current to the East precedes the change of the 

 wind. It begins to be felt, at first, during a calm ; and, after some days, 

 the wind itself follows the Current, and becomes fixed in the West." — 

 Personal Narrative, vol. iii, page 378. 



(333.) Captain C. S. Cochrane, R.N., in his Journal, March i6th, 1823, 

 says : — " In the afternoon we perceived high land through the haze, and 

 hauled up for it, wishing to make a point about 50 miles to windward 

 of Santa Marta; but on getting inshore, we found that we were 7 miles to 

 leeward of that place, the Current from the Eastward having been run- 

 ning for the last twenty-four hours upward of 2 knots an hour ; which 

 agrees with Baron Humboldt's account, that the Current runs from 1| to 

 2 knots an hour, according to the force of the wind and season of the 

 year. The natives say, that the moon likewise has a considerable effect 

 on this Current, which, at the changes of new and full, runs to the East- 

 ward for twenty-four hours. 



" Here I must caution all captains of ships navigating on this line of 

 coast to allow for the Current, in general, at least Ih knot per hour on an 

 average, with an increase in proportion to the strength of the breeze, and 

 an abatement at the new and full moons; otherwise, vessels heavily laden, 

 overshooting their ports, may lose as much as three weeks by having to 

 stand away nearly to the Antillas before they can get sufficiently to wind- 

 ward to gain the port they have missed ; and even men-of-war run a risk 

 of carrying away spars and masts in beating up." — Vol. i., page 52. 



(334.) The following extracts from the Journals of Lieutenant Greevelink 

 will be found of interest : — 



"In January, 1834, the Ech-o, in crossing the Caribbean Sea, from 

 Cura9ao to windward, experienced a drift of 40 miles to the West, and 

 escaped only by running straight for the coast of Hayti, beating to wind- 

 ward along that and the coast of Porto Rico, with the best success, and 

 even assisted by weak Elasterly currents when near the shore. The wind 



