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61 



Madeira was lost upon h; aad tiiecreiv in tbe long-boat steered 

 ENE. tbe above d\stapce, wb^ch brojght ibem to Faya'. This 

 pilot h'm.el," piocecdecJ, in cOiisequence of this i'''forn[)atio»i, to 

 exan pc (be Vi;^'a, a. id scco ci'ngly niel; with it, ranning- back 

 the way the boat bad come. Ti has two reefs of rocks, one 

 about l£0 yards .'ong on the WNVV. pa'-t, and another of 100 

 yards to tbe south, with a cluster of rocks, covered at high 

 water, and a small sdncly beach of forty ya':'ds long, to the 

 WNW. of these rocks." Tbis infofixiation, which, notwith- 

 standing it is so circumstanlial, seenns to want authority, is 

 copied from a note of one of the journals of our second captain. 



As vessels coming fro.ii the south comnnonly pass in the 

 neighbourhooa of this spot (la Vigia), whose situation is so un- 

 dele. mined, tbey are obliged to be much on their guard, from 

 ^J. la'i. 37 J° lo Stj-i-j lybig-by for one or more nights together } 

 —a great hinderance to navigation, which demands that a point 

 so interesiins: ^^o all maritime nations should no lon2:er remain in 

 uncertainty. 



On the 25ih we had easy variable winds from the NE. quar- 

 ter, changing on the 26th to SW., which carried us into lat. 

 40°, and W. long. 2S° ; tVom whence we steered eastwardly ; 

 and on the 29th, in tbe morning, came in sight of the island 

 Cuervo, one of the Azores. At noon, according to the ]atitude 

 of this island, la^d down in tbe chart of Verdun, we were in W, 

 long. *24*^ according to tbe time-piece, No. 71, by which 

 we kept our account, in 24'=' 26' ; but, by the reckoning, in 

 19"^ 18', and, consequently, 5® 11' to the E. of our place of 

 markation in the chart, — a space which, in this parallel of lati- 

 tude, is equal to seventy-n'oe leagues. 



Tiie time-piece differed, in three days, oQ,' to the W. of the 

 reckoning. Three bases measu»*ed by the log in the morning, 

 in order to calcu'ate our distance from tbe island, produced re- 

 sults so d'stant from what tbey certcnnly ought to have been, 

 that we were convinced of tbe existence of a strong current, 

 whose direction and force explained the differences in our ac- 

 counts. 



The night was calm, and next morning the wind set in from 

 S. to SE. with cloudy weather; which, continuing for five days 

 together, forced us, much against our inclination, to run to the 

 northward as far as latitude 43|:^ ; — a circumstance the more 

 painful to us, that, arriving now in a cold moist climate, the 

 scurvy began to make its appearance among the ship's company, 

 particularly in tbe commander, who, notwithstanding his great 

 spirit, was so ill as to be confined to his bed. 



We were also by these winds driven into the parallel of the 



