79 



osity of the winds, as we observed in the south- 

 ern ocean, when we were on the western coasts 

 of Mexico. 



The Pizarro had orders to touch at the Isle 

 of Lancerote ( Lanzarote,) one of the seven great 

 Canary Islands, to inquire whether the English 

 blockaded the road of St. Croix of Teneriff. We 

 had been uncertain, since the 15th of June, what 

 course to follow. Till then the pilots, to whom 

 the use of marine watches was not very familiar, 

 had shown little confidence in the longitude 

 which I obtained regularly twice a-day ? by the 

 difference of time, in taking horary angles morn- 

 ing and evening. They hesitated at steering to 

 the south-east, in apprehension of running on 

 Cape Nun, or at least of leaving the island of 

 Lancerote to the west. At length on the 16th 

 of June, at nine in the morning, when we were 

 already in 29° 26' of latitude, the Captain 

 changed his course, and sailed toward the east. 

 The exactness of Lewis Berthoud's timekeeper 

 was soon recognized : at two in the afternoon 

 we had sight of land, which appeared like a 

 small cloud at the edge of the horizon. At five, 

 the sun being lower, the Isle of Lancerote pre- 

 sented itself so distinctly, that I was able to take 

 the angle of altitude of a conic mountain, which 

 towered majestically over the other summits, 

 and which we thought was the great volcano 

 which had committed so many ravages in the 

 night of the first of September, 1730. 



