Towards Madeira,} TERRA AUSTRALIS. 
19 
We continued our course for Madeira, with fair winds. Our 1S01 - 
latitude on the 30th, was 30 0 5' north, longitude i5°3i' west ; and Timrsday3o. 
in the afternoon Porto Santo was seen, bearing west-north-west; 
the wind then became light and variable, and soon afterwards died 
away. The variation observed on the binnacle by the master, when 
the head was south-west-by-south, was 22° 45', but on the booms 
1 9° 51'; the true variation being as I believe, 20° 51' west. 
It was calm on the 31st, and I had a boat lowered down and Friday 31. 
went round the ship with the carpenter, to inspect the seams near 
the water line ; for we had the mortification to find the ship begin- 
ning to leak so soon as the channel was cleared, and in the three 
last days she had admitted three inches of water per hour. The 
seams appeared sufficiently bad, especially under the counter and at 
the butt ends, for the leak to be attributable to them ; and as less 
water came in when the ship was upright than when heeling to a 
beam wind, I hoped the cause need not be sought lower down. Be- 
fore hoisting up the boat, a small hawke's-bill turtle was picked up ; 
and between this time and that of anchoring in Funchal Road, 
several others were seen, and a second, weighing about thirty pounds, 
was caught. 
Aug. 1, at noon, Porto Santo bore N. 11 0 W., and the rocky August, 
islands called Dezertas, fromN. 65° to S. 85 0 W. distant three leag Lies. Saturday 1. 
The south end of these islands lies, by our observations, in .latitude 
32 0 24/ 20" north, which differs less than one mile from its position 
in Mr. Johnston's chart of the Madeiras. There being little wind 
next morning, I went off in one of the cutters, accompanied by Mes- Sunday 2. 
sieurs Brown and Bauer, the naturalist and natural-history painter, 
to the southernmost island, called Bujio, which was not far distant. 
On the way, I shot several birds of the puffin kind, one of which 
had a fathom of small brass wire attached to its wing. The distance 
of the land proved to be more considerable than was expected ; and 
there being a current setting southward we did not reach the 
