378 



alone with the Guaiqueria pilot the voyage by 

 sea. It appeared to me hazardous, to lose sight 

 of the instruments, which we were to make use 

 of on the banks of the Oroonoko. 



We set sail at the beginning of the night. 

 The wind was unfavourable, and we doubled 

 Cape Codera with difficulty. The surges were 

 short, and often broke one upon another. A 

 man must have felt the fatigue of an extremely 

 hot day, to have slept in a little boat, that 

 steered close to the wind. The sea ran the 

 higher, on account of the wind being contrary 

 to the current, till after midnight. The general 

 motion of the waters between the tropics to- 

 ward the west is felt strongly on the coast dur- 

 ing two thirds only of the year. In the months 

 of September, October, and November, the cur- 

 rent often flows toward the east * for fifteen or 

 twenty days in succession. Vessels on their 

 way from Guayra to Porto Cabello have been 

 known to be unable to stem the current, that 

 runs from west to east, although they had the 

 wind astern. The cause of these anomalies is 

 not yet discovered. The pilots think they are 

 the effect of some gales of wind from the north- 

 west in the Gulf of Mexico. Yet these gales 

 are much more violent toward the spring-^ than 

 in autumn. It is also remarkable, that the 



* Corriente por arriba. 



+ Nouv. Espagne, Tom. i, p. 50, 



