THE PACIFIC. 



51 



fast as possible, in order to avoid the very unplea- 

 sant weather which belongs to it at this season. 

 This, it appears, is sometimes difficult to accomplish, 

 and ships are even driven as far as Acapulco, before 

 they can disentangle themselves from the westerly 

 and south-westerly breezes. We, however, found 

 no difficulty in running off to the S. W, as far as 

 110° W. and 15° north. From 8 i° north, to 3 

 north, and longitude 1 05° W., we were much retard- 

 ed by southerly winds. We then got the trade- 

 wind, which hung far to the south at first, and oblig- 

 ed us to cross the line in 110|° west. We kept the 

 trade-wind for fifteen days, that is, to the 23d of Ju- 

 ly, at which time we had reached the latitude of 27^ 

 south, having run by its means about two thousand 

 miles. The wind afterwards came to the northward, 

 and then to N. W., whence, in 30^° south, it shifted 

 to south by east, and then to south-west on the 29th 

 of July. In 35 J° south, and 102° west, we had a 

 hard gale from the southward. 



The wind had been previously so fresh from S. W. 

 and S. S. W., that we were obliged to close reef at 

 midnight of the 28th of July. It shortly afterwards 

 came on to rain hard, and fell calm for an hour, at 

 the end of which interval a gale suddenly came ou 



