SOUTH AMERICA. 



107 



eating heat. To find a middle coarse is the aim of 

 navigators. Much has been said and written as to 

 the best mode of avoiding this scylla and carybdis, 

 but it is pretty generally agreed, that it should be 

 crossed between the twenty-seventh and twenty-third 

 degrees of longitude. Commodore Sinclair resolved 

 to take the mean between these two extremes.* 



We did not gain the regular north-east trade winds 

 until after passing the islands before mentioned, and 

 we had a great run until we reached the seventh degree 

 of north latitude, when they gradually left us. From 

 the 31st of December until the 5th of January, we 

 made upwards of nine hundred miles; after this a 

 most distressing calm set in, which continued until 

 the 17th of the month. In the mean time, we were 

 drifted by an easterly current nearly two hundred 

 miles; that is, from about twenty-three to nineteen de- 

 grees west. This was one of the most disagreeable pe- 

 riods of my life. It appeared as if we had been con- 

 demned to perish in this dismal region: a black sea 

 around us, and above us generally a gloomy sky; 

 dark shapeless clouds continually gathering as if to 

 contend with the sun, whose fierce vertical rays occa- 

 sionally bursting forth seemed almost to burn. The 

 arch of the horizon was diminished in a most surpris- 

 ing manner, as if presaging a dreadful storm. The 



* Commodore *Porter in his cruise crossed the equator in twen- 

 ty-eight degrees forty-five minutes, without experiencing any calm. 

 His object, however, was to fall into the track of vessels bound to 

 Europe, it is therefore probable that if his intention had been to pro- 

 cesd directly south, he would not have passed so near the Amer- 

 ican continent. In the journal of this intrepid and skilful navi- 

 gator, there are many interesting remarks on this subject* 



