CHAPTER II. 
PASSAGE FROM MADEIRA TO RIO JANEIRO. 
18 3 8. 
On the 25th of September, having completed all that was deemed 
necessary, we sailed from Madeira, and stood to the southward, 
intending to pass over the localities where shoals were supposed to 
exist. 
The morning after our departure from Madeira it was reported to 
me at daylight, that the squadron were not in sight; as we had 
been making rapid progress throughout the night, I concluded that 
we had outrun the squadron, and hove to for them to come up. 
About eight o'clock they were discovered. On joining, I was in- 
formed by Captain Hudson that they had been becalmed for several 
hours, although we were near each other when the breeze sprang 
up. These veins of wind are frequent in this part of the ocean. 
After passing the Canary Islands we experienced a current, setting 
northeast by east, of about one fourth of a mile an hour, until we 
reached the latitude of Bonavista, one of the Cape de Verde Islands. 
This somewhat surprised me, for I had formed the idea that the 
set of the current should have been in the direction of our course ; 
but many careful observations with the current-log, and the differ- 
ence between our astronomical observations and dead reckoning, gave 
the same results. 
It was my intention on leaving the United States to pass from 
Madeira through the Sargasso Sea, in order to ascertain something 
definite in relation to this unexplored and interesting locality, and to 
gain some information relative to the Fucus nutans, or gulf weed, the 
origin of which has remained so long in doubt. Deep soundings in 
this part of the ocean I deemed would be very interesting, and 
VOL. I. 8 
