312 A VOYAGE TO Book IX. 



voyages they had with them •, for the currents being 

 ftronger at feme times than others, they who followed 

 the former made a much larger allowance than thofe 

 who regulated their corrections by the latter ; and con- 

 fequently their reckonings muft have been very differ- 

 ent. The currents therefore being uncertain, and the 

 journals of thofe voyages very variable with regard to 

 their velocity, there is no more fecurity in following 

 «ne than another, and even if we take a medium be- 

 tween them, there would be no more fafety in relying 

 upon it, than blindly to follow that which was thought 

 the bell. However, their utility and even importance 

 cannot be denied, as they inform the navigator of the 

 parts where he muft expect to meet with currents, and 

 at the fame time warn him of their variety. 



One caufe of the little knowledge we have of thefe 

 currents is, that this voyage is feldom made, and lefs 

 by the Spaniards than by any other maritime nation j 

 and though fince the year 1716 fevcral French Ihips 

 have failed into thofe feas, they have not yet beeaable 

 to remove this difficulty, and fettle the times of the 

 feveral degrees of velocity of the currents in the dif- 

 ferent latitudes pafTed through in weathering the Cape. 

 This is indeed only to be expected from long experi- 

 ence and repeated voyages ; and in order to this navi- 

 gators fhould not make any allowance for their currents 

 in correcting their days works ^ for the diftance be- 

 tween the knots on the log-line being truly adjufted 

 as ours was at forty-feven Paris feet and one third, 

 and the half-minute glafs carefully attended to, the 

 error in the diftanee will be very inconfiderable, and 

 confcquently the drift of the current, on making land, 

 known very near the truth and this muft be added to 

 or deducted from the reckoning by account. By pur- 

 fuing this method we lhall advance one ftep towards 

 a more certain knowledge of them» 



Though we are not yet able to determine the ve- 

 locity of the currents, nor the times of their fetting, 



yet 



