Si Cordova s Vol/ age qf Discovery 



we had proposed, and employed four days in running down 

 from 25** to 24^ S. int. ; after which the Avind set in from the 

 SE., and, on the 1 Ith and 1 3th of April, we had a sight of the 

 island called Trinidad or Ascension. 



In the French charts are laid down, in the parallel 20^ 30' S., 

 two islands, the most easterly of which is called Trinidad or La 

 Trinite, and the other Ascension ; with a remark at the same 

 time, that some navigators assert that the two are only one and 

 the same island, laid down in that distant quarter of the globe 

 according to several different accounts. 



Admiral Don John de Langara, who, by order of his Catholic 

 Majesty, went to examine this point, determined that there was 

 but one island, to which he gave the name of Trinidad, because 

 there is another island called Ascension, in S. latitude 8°, and 

 placed it, agreeably to several series of lunar observations made 

 by himself and other officers of skill and accuracy, in S. latitude 

 20° 29j' and in longitude 24° 13' W. from Cadiz. According 

 to our position, laid down in the chart, as we lay with respect to 

 this island, we were, at noon of the iSth of April, in W. lon- 

 gitude 24° 20' 30", by our reckoning, in 23° 1 2', and, by the time- 

 piece, in ^t2*^58|', which last was 1^ 22' to the E. of our place on 

 the chart; on which account we suspected that some alteration 

 had taken place in the time-piece, and, on examining the results 

 indicated by it at noon for some days past, we discovered that, 

 in part, it had undergone some change in its motion. 



In twenty-four hours, No. 16 of Berthoud had gained on No. 

 71 of Arnold l' 15|"; which, even supposing that No. 16 had 

 returned, now that we were in a warm climate, to its former 

 usual advance of 52^'' on mean time, would indicate that No. 71 

 bad gained in one day only 20', -when we allowed it to gain 

 daily 26^^, or mean time. It thence followed, that No. 71, going 

 slower than we supposed, pointed out less time elapsed at Cadiz ; 

 consequently, as we were to the west of that meridian, it gave 

 less longitude than it ought, as we discovered, on comparison 

 with our plan on the chart. This was the greatest difference we 

 observed on comparing these time-pieces, Nos. ]6 and 71, in any 

 one day ; those of the seven preceding days being much less. 

 Nos. 15 and l6 of Berthoud bad now returned to their respective 

 differences in those latitudes, which they preserved without 

 variation for many days together,— another proof that the re- 

 markable alteration had taken place in No. 71 alone. 



We had noticed for six days before very considerable dif- 

 ferences to the eastward, between our reckoning and our posi- 

 tion, as indicated by No. 7 1 , which had not occurred on our pas- 

 sage outward through the same latitudes. The heavens had 

 been very cloudy, excepting the four or five days immediately 



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