39 



lish cruizers, and the danger of touching at 

 Guayra. We had learnt by altitudes of the sun„ 

 taken under very favorable circumstances, how 

 incorrect at this period were the most esteemed 

 marine charts. On the fifteenth in the morning, 

 when the time keeper placed us in 66° 1' 15" 

 longitude, we were not yet in the meridian of 

 Margaretta island ; though according to the re- 

 duced chart of the Atlantic ocean # we ought to 

 have passed the very lofty western cape of this 

 island, which is laid down in longitude 66°. 

 The inaccuracy with which the coasts were de- 

 lineated previous to the works of Messrs. Fi- 

 dalgo, Noguera, and Tiscar -f~, and I may ven- 



* Constructed at the Dep6t de la Marine in 1786, and 

 corrected in 1792. 



f Carta general del oceano Atlantico consiruida en el Depo- 

 sito hydrographico de Madrid en el anno 1800, et corregida en 

 1804. Carta esferiea de las Islas Antillas con parte de la costa 

 del continente de America, trabajada por don Cosme Churruca y 

 Don Joacquin Francisco Fidalgo, 1802. These two charts have 

 served as bases to all those that have appeared in these latter 

 times in different parts of Europe, which, copied one from 

 another, differ only in numberless calcographical errors. 

 Most of the original observations of the Spanish astronomers 

 are mentioned in Mr. Espinosa's valuable work, entitled, Me- 

 morias sobre las Observaciones astronomicas hechaspor los Nave- 

 gantes Espannoles en distintos Lugares del Globo (2 vols. 4to, 

 Madrid, 1809). I have compared, step by step, the results 

 of these observations with those on which Mr. Oltmann and 

 myself are agreed (Astron. Obs. vol. i ; lntrod. p. 33—49). 

 This comparison will be useful to those, who may hereafter 



