feH. L SOUTH AMERICA. 14? 



On the coaft of Sumber, of which the 

 latitude by obfervation was 14' 



We fhould, for feveral days, have been without 

 knowing certainly the latitude, an obje6l of the laft 

 importance in any voyage, had not Mr. Godin had 

 the precaution to take^with him a Hadley's quadrant. 

 This ingenious gentleman having been pitched upon 

 for the voyage to America, undertook a journey to 

 London, purely to purchafe feveral inftruments, and 

 among others bought that already mentioned and 

 which proved of the greatefl: ufe to us, in finding the 

 latitude during this pafiage ; a point the more dif- 

 iicult and neceiTary, on account of feveral perplexing 

 circumttances ; the courfe being fometimes north, 

 fometimes fouth, and the currents fetting in the fame 

 direftion. AfTifted by this infhrument, we were ena- 

 bled to take the meridian altitude of the fun, whilR', 

 from the denfity of the vapours which filled the at- 

 niofphere, the fhadow could not be defined on the 

 ufual inftruments* 



CHAP. 11. 



j4ccount of the Voyage from Perico to Puna. 



riri H E brifas, by their return^ as we before obferv- 

 I ed, occafion an alteration in the weather of Pa- 

 nama, by introducing the fummer, as they alfo do in 

 the pafTage from Perico to Puna ; or, miore properly, 

 to Cape Blanco : for, after the brifas have begun to 

 blow at Panama, they gradually increafe and ipread, 

 in oppofition to the fouth winds, till, overcoming 

 them, they are fettled \ but their periods are not al- 

 ways equal, either on the land or in the ocean. Ge- 

 nerally the brifas do not reach beyond the equate r, 

 or are fo faint, as often to be interrupted by calms, 

 or other weak and unfettled winds. Sometimes, in- 



L 2 deed. 



