) 
ipo Travels into the Levant. Part II. 
OH A P. IV. 
Of the rejl of the Voyage to the Indies. 
An Invention '\7ÎT^^'^^f^'^y ^^o^t Sun fet, we began to keep reckoning of our way, which is 
for Reckoning '^one in this raanne;-. At the Stern of the Ship they heave out a little 
the Ships way. piece of board, about half a Foot long, four Inches broad, and very .thin and 
imooth, which is fattened to a Line i at the fame time they turn a minute Sand- 
Glafs, which is the fixtieth part of an hour i and fo long as this minute is running, 
they veer off the Line, but tiop it fo foon as the the Glafs is. out -, and when they 
have pulled it up, they reckon how many Fathom have run ofFin that minutes time, 
allowing for every feven Fathom a Miles running in an hour. But it is to beob- 
fcrved that before the Glafs be turned, they let off with the Log fourteen Fathom 
of the Line, and thefe fourteen Fathom are not accounted in the reckoning, for 
they reckon none but thofe that run off whilft the Glafs is running i and there- 
fore there is a mark to diftinguifb the beginning from the end of the firft four- 
teen i and at the inftant that that mark begins to go off, -they Turn (he minute 
Glafs. Thisreckoning is found by experience to be pretty juft i and thereupon I 
told our Captain, that Ihacf feen the Englijh do the fame thing in the Mediterra' 
nean^ fave that they did not allow thofe fourteen firft Fathom, and that they ufed 
but half a minute Glafs, or the hundred and twentieth part of an hour, and that 
neverthelefs they reckoned feven Fathom of the Line that run off during that mi- 
nute fora Mile an hour of the Ships way > that according to that reckoning, he 
ought to allow fourteen Fathom for an hour, his being a minute Glafs, and cut off 
thefe ftrft fourteen. He made me no other anfwer -, but that the Currents of the 
Ocean were ftronger than thofe of the Mediterranean : neverthelefs, one would 
think that fince they reckon not thofe fourteen Fathom, and turn not the Glafs 
till they be run out, they are altogether ufelcfs i unlefs it be, perhaps, that they let 
thetin run off,to the end that when thofe which they reckon begin, to run,the Log nnay 
be fp far off, that the Sea which beats againft the Ship, may nor drive it neither 
forwards nor backwards ; and indeed beforerfhe Glals be turned, they take notice 
whether or not the Log runs ftreight in the Ships wakei and there is a red mark at 
the place where they begin to reckon, to prevent their being miftaken : other- 
wife if they fbould reckon as foon as they heaved out the Log, the Ship runs fome 
times fo faft, that they would not have time to confider whether or not the Log, 
went ftreight in the Ships way. Once an hour they heave that Log, and then mark 
down every time hcyvv many knots or Fathoms of the Line has run out > and every, 
day at noon they caft up the account of their running j fo that they reckon by this 
mean?, how many Miles theShip has run in four and twenty hours i (that is to fay,), 
from noon of the preceeding, to noon of the prefent day i and this they fet off with 
a Gompafs upon the Sca-Chart, that they may know where the Ship is. Though 
this be a very ufeful invention, yet it is not too much to be relyed upon i elfe they 
would be in danger of committing great errours at Sea, becaufe of the Tides and 
Currents, that either drive the Log forwards or backwards j and to be affuredof 
the exadnefs of that account, the Log muft be fixed and immoveable. But the 
En^lifh Siie not miftaken, for befides that invention of Miles, they dayly take an 
obfervation of ;he Suns height : befides they heave out the Log, at every change, 
encreafe or decreafe of the Wind, The Engli/h reckon their Miles, at five hundred 
Geometrical paces only, (that is,) five Foot to the pace. 
Cape of 7<jf About half an hour after fix we were off of the Cape of Jafqmi^ (anciently 
^^ft '^^"^'^ Carpella it lyes in five and twenty degrees and a half North Latitude, 
of Orww from 's'thirty Leagues from Ormus. From that Cape, the Land bears Eafl and by 
Cape Jajques. ^outh^ to the River of Indus. At Cape Jafques about half a Mile or a Mile up 
on Land, there is a kind of a forry Fort» with about forty Houfes, inhabited by 
a fort of very poor people, who live on Barley, and drink nothing but water, 
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