12 AVOYAGETO Book I. 



During our pafiage betwixt the Canary iflands, 

 we had faint and variable winds^ with feme fhort 

 calms ; but, after we had loft fight of them, the gales 

 increafed upon us, but moderate, and continued in 

 this manner till we arrived within 170 or 180 leagues 

 of Martinico, when we had fqualls accompanied with 

 violent rains. After pafling the Canaries, at about 

 twenty leagues from thefe iflands, we had the wind 

 at north-Vv^eft, and at the diftance of near 80 leagues 

 it fhifted to E. and E. N. E. We had nearly the 

 fame in the middle of the Atlantic ocean, and after- 

 wards the wind came about to the E. with different 

 degrees of velocity ; but the variation was not fuch 

 as to occafion any inconveniency. 



These are the winds generally met with in this 

 voyage. Sometimes it veers away to the W, and 

 W. N. W. though it is very feldom known to con- 

 tinue on thefe points. Sometimes long calms inter- 

 vene, which lengthen the voyage beyond the ufual 

 time. All this depends on the feafons and ac- 

 cording to the time of the voyage, the weather 

 and winds are more or lefs favourable. The winds a- 

 bove-mentionedarethe moft general; and the beft time 

 for making ufe of them, as they then are fettled, is when 

 the fun approaches near the equator in his return from 

 the tropic of Capricorn : for his approach to the au- 

 tumnal equinox is the time when the calms moft pre- 

 vail. 



From the iflands of Martinico and Dominica to 

 that of Curafao and the coaft of Carthagena, the 

 winds continued the fame as in the ocean, though more 

 variable, and the weather lefs fair. I have faid, that 

 about 1 70 leagues before we reached Martinico the 

 winds were interrupted by fqualls ; and thefe are more 

 common beyond thofe iflands, and are immediately 

 fucceeded by, fliort calm.s after which the wind 

 frefliens again for half an hour, an hour, two hours, 

 and fometimes longer. From what quarter thefe 



tornadoes 



