11 



I»ORTER S JOVlllSAL. 



ship ready for action, and beat to quarters. On the 

 squall clearing off, discovered the chase before the wind 

 under a press of sail ; made all sail in chase, but lost sight 

 of her after dark, and at 8 o'clock gave over the pursuit 

 and stood on our course. From various causes, I am in- 

 duced to believe her to be the American sloop of wslT 

 Wasp, commanded by captain Jacob Jones, who sailed 

 from the Delaware a few days before us. 



The whole of the 9th, fresh gales and a heavy sea from 

 the westward. 



On the 10th, ascertained our longitude by the distance 

 between the sun and moon's centres to be 48° 30' 35" west ; 

 and on comparing it with our dead-reckoning, found a dif- 

 ference of five degrees ; which arose from a mistake in the 

 marking of our log-line, four knots being marked where 

 three should have been. 



The 12th, 13th, 14th, 15th, and 16th, the weather re- 

 markably pleasant, the winds light and variable, inclining 

 to the eastward ; nothing of any importance took place 

 during that period ; find our sick list decreasing daily, the 

 crew improving in their appearance and conduct, which 

 in general has been extremely good; although, while we 

 lay in the Delaware, the ease of procuring rum on board 

 had produced some little irregularities, which required a 

 few days at sea to correct. I now divided the crew into 

 three watches, finding it sufficiently strong to admit of this 

 arrangement, and took every advantage of the good wea- 

 ther to put the ship in prime order for any service. 



Our sick list on the 16th, as follows : 



William Klaer, John Glasseau, Benjamin Hamilton, Le- 

 vy Holmes, Mark Antonio, Thomas ^ Belcher, Thomas 

 M'Donald, Jordan Williams. Of this number only two, to 

 wit, William Klaer and Levy Holmes, w^ere incapable of 

 doing duty ; the one from a disease in the liver, the other 

 from intermitting headache. 



On the 1 7th, took advantage of the calm weather to give 

 our rigging a good setting up, and in the afternoon disco- 

 vered a sail to the W. S. W. Gave chase to and spoke her 

 about 4 o'clock : she proved to be a Portuguese brig, from 

 the Brazils bound to Gibraltar, laden with tobacco ; she had 

 been on her passage 52 days, and the only news she could 



