CHAPTER II. 



PASSAGE FROM MADEIRA TO RIO JANEIRO. 

 1838. 



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 informed 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 difference 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 natans, 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 afford an 



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