L 87 ] . 
CHAPTER III. 
As the track from Mosambique to the Red Sea is little known, 
I have been induced to give a naotical journal of our passage as 
far as Aden, and particular care has been taken to mark the 
variation of the compass, (which was regularly observed when- 
ever occasion offered,) on account of the existence of similar ob- 
servations made on the same coast as early as the year 1620,* in 
order that, from a comparison between the different remarks, the 
change that has taken place in the variation may be ascertained, 
r On the 16th of September, we sailed from Mosambique at day 
break, and stood out from the land until twelve o'clock, when we 
steered a regular course N. by E. with the intention of keeping in 
a direction parallel to the coast. At noon the latitude observed 
was 14° 30' S. the wind blowing fresh from the southward, with 
a heavy sea from the S.S. E. the variation 22° 20' W. 
On September the 17th, we continued the same course ; the 
weather remaining extremely mild and the wind veering round 
a little to the eastward. In the course of the day we met with a 
strong current setting to the southward at the rate of thirty 
miles in twenty-four hours, Lat. at noon 12° 37' 30" S., Long, per 
chron. 41° 24' E., Ther. 78, Var. in the morning 22° 2', in the 
afternoon 20° 2' W. 
* Vide Beaulieu's Voyage to the East Indies. ■ 
