7 



have deranged at the same time the regularity of 

 the horary oscillations of the barometer ! 



Some Spanish navigators have lately propos- 

 ed going to the West Indies and the coasts of 

 Terra Firma, by a different course from that 

 which had been taken by Christopher Columbus^ 

 They advise, instead of steering directly to the 

 south in search of the trade winds, to change 

 both latitude and longitude, in a diagonal line 

 from Cape St. Vincent to America. This method, 

 which shortens the way, cutting the tropic nearly 

 twenty degrees west of the point where it is 

 commonly cut by the pilots, has several times 

 been successfully followed by Admiral Gravina. 

 This experienced seaman, who perished glori- 

 ously at the battle of Trafalgar, arrived in 1802 

 at St. Domingo, by the oblique passage, several 

 days before the French fleet, though orders of 

 the court of Madrid would have forced him to 

 enter Ferrol with his squadron, and stop there 

 some time. 



This new system of navigation shortens the 

 passage from Cadiz to Cumana a twentieth ; 

 but as the tropic is attained only at the longitude 

 of forty degrees, the chance of meeting with con- 

 trary winds, which blow sometimes from the 

 south, and at other times from the south-west, 

 is more unfavorable. In the old system, the 

 disadvantage of making a longer passage is com- 

 pensated by the certainty of finding the trade 



