P0II'1EK*S JOl KNAL. 



trade-winds, before they reach this point, pass over a tract 

 of land, extending from the Gulf of Arabia to the Atlantic, 

 and equal in widtii to sixty -five degrees, it may be presumed 

 that they must contract in their passage a great intensity of 

 heat, of which they lose but a small portion before reaching 

 the track of vessels. It may therefore be expected, even if 

 facts did not prove it to be the case, that the most intense 

 heat of the trades experienced by vessels is near the most 

 westerly projection of Africa, or between the latitudes of 5" 

 and 12 north. 



From Sierra Leone the land trends to the eastward for 

 about twenty-five degrees, and forms that part of the ocean 

 called the Gulf of Guinea, the bottom of which lies in about 

 1 2" east longitude. Consequently, a space of ocean extends 

 between the continent and the ship (when between the line 

 and latitude 5° north) of upwards of thirty-five degrees; 

 and as the trades in passing over the continent here from 

 the Indian seas have only a passage of 30", they contract 

 only a proportionable degree of heat ; and as it might be 

 expected that much of it would be lost before they reach 

 the ship, it seems natural to suppose that they would incline 

 toward the north, to restore the equilibrium, (destroyed by 

 the highly rarefied air from the projecting point of Africa,) 

 and thus produce the cool and refreshing S. E. trade winds. 

 When the sun is to the north of the equator, the S. E. trades 

 are to be met in a more northern latitude, but they are at 

 all times to be met to the north of the line. 



On the afternoon our longitude, by a very accurate chro- 

 nometer, was 26° 41' 39" west, the latitude at meridian was 

 3° 2' 6" north. 



On the evening of the 9th, being in the latitude of T north, 

 and longitude 28° 45' west, hove the ship to, for fear of run- 

 ning in the night past Penedro de St. Pedro. We were not 

 enabled to strike into the latitude of the island farther to 

 the eastward than 27° west, on account of the scantiness of 

 tlie winds ; nor did I conceive it would be safe to run farther 

 west than 29° 15', for fear of not being able afterwards to 

 jtnake the island of Fernando Noronha. I therefore, at 

 eight o'clock the next morning, finding myself in that lon- 

 gitude, (determined by the lunar observation the prece- 

 ding evening, with which the result given by the chrono- 

 meter agreed within a few minutes,) gave up the search. 



