^76 OBSEKVATIONS ON THE CURRENTS. 



sequent voyages, in 1502-3, he observed the strength of the streams in the 

 Caribbean Sea* The first voyage through the Gulf of Florida was that by 

 Ponc6 de Leon, in 1512 or 1513, and this gave the first account of the 

 Stream itself, and he named the present Cape Canaveral el Caho de Cor- 

 rientes, from the circumstance. Several other Spanish voyagers, about this 

 period, also experienced its effects, especially the pilot Antonio de Alaminos, 

 who sailed through it in 1519. In Mr. Kohl's exhaustive and most in- 

 teresting Monograph,! these and very many other earlier voyages are 

 noticed, and the whole history of the subject dilated on. 



(361.) That excellent observer, William Dampier, in his " Discourses on 

 the Trade Winds," &c., published in 1690, page 105, gives the following 

 observations : — 



" And 'tis as probable that the current, which sets to leeward on all the 

 coast from Cape St. Augiistine to Cape Catoch, never enters the Ba7j of 

 Mexico, but bends still to the Northward, till 'tis checked by the Florida 

 shore ; and then wheels about to the East, till it comes nearer the Gulph's 

 Mouth, and there joyning with the soaking current that draws down on 

 the North sides of Hispaniola and Cuba, passes altogether with great 

 strength through the Gulph of Florida, which is the most remarkable 

 Gulph in the World for its Currents, because it always sets very strong to 

 the North. Yet, near the shores on each side this Gulph there are tides, 

 especially on the Florida shore ; and Ships may pass which way they 

 please, if they are acquainted. 



" It has formerly been accounted very dangerous to meet with a North 

 in this Gulph ; and for that reason our Jamaica ships, to avoid them, have 

 rather chosen to go to the Eastward and pass through the Cacuses (Caycos) 

 in the season that Norths do blow. The Cacuses are sands that lie off the 

 N.W. end of Hispaniola. Those that went from Port Royal in Jamaica had 

 good reason for this ; for if a North took them at their going out, it would 

 help them forward in their way, which, should they have been going 

 towards the Gulph, it would obstruct them. Then besides, if a North take 

 a ship in the Gulph, the wind blowing against the Current makes an ex- 

 traordinary Sea, and so thick come the Waves, one after another, that a 

 ship can't possibly live in it, yet of late they go through at all times of the 

 Year, and if a North takes them in the Gulph, they put away right before 

 the Wind and Sea, with a small head sail ; yet the Current is then as 

 strong or stronger than at other times, and forces them back, stern fore- 

 most, against both Wind and Sea ; for though the surface of the Sea is 

 raised in Waves and driven violently with the Winds to the Southward, 

 yet the Current underneath runs still to the Northward ; neither is it any 

 strange thing to see two different Currents at one place and time, the super- 

 ficial Water running one way, and that underneath running quite contrary ; 

 for sometimes at an anchor I have seen the Cable carryed thus by two 



• He remarks: — " I hold it for certain that the waters of the sea move from East to 

 West, and that in passing this tract (the Windward Islands) they hold a more rapid 

 course, and have thus carried away large tracts of land, and that from hence has re- 

 sulted the great number of islands." Recent observations do not seem to bear out thia 

 theory. 



t (jdBohiohte des ^oMstroms und seiner Erforsohung. J. Q. Kohl. Bremen, 1868. 



