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tint: the rolling of our small vessel was violent, 

 and we perceived amidst the dashing of the 

 waves, two seas crossing each other, one from 

 the N. and the other from N.N.E. Water- 

 spouts were formed at the distance of a mile, 

 and were carried rapidly from N.N.E. to 

 N.N.W. Whenever the water-spout drew near 

 us, we felt the wind grow sensibly cooler. 

 Towards the evening, by the carelessness of our 

 American cook, the deck took fire ; it was 

 happily soon extinguished ; for in bad weather, 

 accompanied by squalls, and with a cargo of 

 meat, which the fat renders extremely combus- 

 tible, the fire would have made a rapid pro- 

 gress. In the morning of the 1st of December, 

 the sea sunk slowly, as the breeze became fixed 

 from N.E. I was at this time pretty certain of 

 the uniform movement of my chronometer ; 

 but of this the Captain wished to be assured by 

 the survey of some points of the island of Saint 

 Domingo. On the 2d December we descried 

 Cape Beata, in a spot where we had long 

 marked the clouds heaped together. Accord- 

 ing to the heights of Achernar, which I obtain- 

 ed in the night, we were sixty-four miles dis- 

 tant. The night displayed a very curious 

 optical phenomenon, which I shall not under- 

 take to explain. It was half an hour past mid- 

 night ; the wind blew feebly from the east ; the 

 thermometer rose to 23.2°, the whalebone hy- 



