1 84 A VOYAGE TO Book IV, 



head and ftern between the main beams, and by 

 thrufting fome of thefe deep in the water, and raifing 

 others, they bear away, luff up, tack, lay to, and 

 perform all the other motions of a regular fhip : an 

 invention hitherto unknown to the moft intelligent 

 nations of Europe, and of which even the Indians 

 know only the mechanifm, their uncultivated minds 

 having never examined into the rationale of it. • Had 

 this method of fteering been fooner known in Europe, 

 it would have alleviated the difcrefs of many a fhip- 

 wreck, by faving numbers of lives ; as in 1730, the 

 Genovefa, one of his majefty's frigates, being loft on 

 the Vibora, the fnip*s company made a raft •, but com- 

 mitting themfelves to the waves, without any means 

 of diredling their courfe, they only added fome me- 

 lancholy minutes to the term of their exiftence. Such 

 affecting inftances induced me to explain the reafon 

 and foundation of this method of fteering, in order 

 to render it of ufe in fuch calamitous junctures ; and, 

 that I may perform it with the greater accuracy, I 

 fhall make ufe of a fhort memoir, drawn up by iDon 

 George Juan. 



The dire6tion, fays he, in which a (hip moves be- 

 fore the wind, is perpendicular to the fail, as Meft'. 

 Renau, in the Theorie de Manoeuvres^ chap. ii. art. i. 

 Bernoulli^ cap. i. art. 4. Fitot^ fe6t. ii. art. 13. have 

 demonftrated. And re-a6lion being contrary and equal 

 to the adlion, the force with which the water oppofes 

 the motion of the veftel, will be applied in a perpen- 

 dicular diredion to the fail, and continued from lee- 

 ward to windward, impelling with more force a greater 

 body than a fmaller, in proportion to the fuperhcies, 

 and the fquares of the figns of the angle of incidence, 

 fuppoiing their velocities equal. Whence it follows, 

 that a Guara being Ihoved down in the fore-part of 

 ^" the veftelj muft- make her luff up; and by taking it 

 out, ftie will bear away or fall off. Like wife on a 

 Guara's being ftioved down at the ftern, ftie will bear 

 5 • awayj 



