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144 A VOYAGE TO Book IV. 



tude and latitude, that they might afcertain the place 

 where the equator cuts this coaft, examine the length 

 of the pendulum, and make other obfcrvations equally 

 important. Accordingly proper inftruments were left 

 with them. 



On the 13th of the fame month of March, our vef- 

 fel put to fea, keeping along the coaft, and pafled the 

 next day within the ifland de la Plata. The 1 5th we 

 began to lofe fight both of Cape St. Lorenzo, and alfo 

 of the ifland j at one in the afternoon we fteered S. S. 

 E. till the 17th, when we difcovered Cape Blanco, the 

 fouth point of the bay of Guayaquil. From Cape 

 Blanco we coafted along the bay, till, about noon on 

 the 1 8th, coming to the mouth of the river Tumbez, 

 we anchored about half a league from the land ; the 

 river's mouth bearing eaft 5 deg. northerly, and the 

 ifland of Santa Clara, commonly called Amortajado, 

 or Muerto, from its refembling the figure of a human 

 corpfe, N. 4. deg. eafterly, in fourteen fathom water^ 

 and a muddy bottom. 



Some particular affairs, of the captain of the fliip 

 obliged us to remain here till the 20th, when, at fix in 

 the morning, we weighed ; and at half an hour after 6 

 in the evening, the ftrength of the current on the ebb 

 obliged us to come to an anchor. Thus we continued 

 anchoring every ebb, and failing during the flood. 

 And here we found that the current always fets out of 

 the bay, though with much iefs velocity on the flood 

 than on the ebb; for we obferved that the tide never 

 altered its dired:ion in 19 hours and a half. The 

 caufe of this phenomenon is fuppofed to be, the pro- 

 digious quantity of water difcharged into it by the 

 rivers. On the 23d, having come to an anchor off 

 Punta de Arenas in the ifland of Puna, we fenc on 

 fhore for a pilot to carry in our (hip ; for, though 

 the diftance was only feven leagues, the great num- 

 ber of fliallows in this fnort palTage rendered a pre- 

 caution of this kind prudent, if not abfolutely necef* 



fary. 



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