813 



they took successively the measurement at a 

 distance of the island of Ranas (Movant Kays) , 

 Cape Portland, and Pedro Kays. They were 

 probably deceived in several of these distances, 

 taken from the top of the mast. 1 have else- 

 where noted these measurements not to put 

 them in opposition to the great number which 

 have been made by able English navigators, in 

 these frequented latitudes, but merely to con- 

 nect, in the same system of observations, the 

 points I determined in the forests of the Oroo- 

 noko, and the archipelago of the West Indies. 

 The milky color of the waters warned us that 

 we were on the eastern part of the bank ; the 

 centigrade thermometer, which at a distance 

 from the bank had kept up, on the surface of 

 the sea, for several days at 27° and 27.3° (the 

 air being at 21.2°), cooled suddenly to 25.7°- 

 The weather was bad from the 4th to the 6th 

 of December; it rained fast; the thunder rolled 

 at a distance, and the gusts from N.N.E. be- 

 came more and more violent. We were for 

 some time of the night in a critical posi- 

 tion; we heard before the prow the noise of 

 the breakers over which we had to pass, and 

 we ascertained their direction by the phosphoric 

 gleam reflected by the foam of the sea ; the 

 scene resembled the Raudal of Garzita, and 



* Aslr. Ohs. y Introd., Vol. \, p. xliii ; Vol. ii, p. 7-10. 



