492 
A VOYAGE TO [ Towards the C. of Good Hope. 
] 810 . 
June, 
July. 
27 0 and longitude 49 0 ; they were afterwards variable, and sometimes 
foul for days together, and we did not make the coast of Africa until 
the 3rd of July. Being then in latitude 34 0 52' and longitude 25I- 0 , 
the hills were descried at the distance of twenty leagues to the 
northward ; and the water being remarkably smooth, the lead was 
hove, but no bottom found at 200 fathoms. A continuance of west- 
ern winds obliged us to work along the greater part of the coast, 
and Cape Agulhas was not seen before the 10th; we then had a 
strong breeze at S. E., and Cape Hanglip being distinguished at dusk, 
captain Tomkinson steered up False Bay, and anchored at eleven at 
night in 22 fathoms, sandy bottom. In this passage of twenty-six 
days from Mauritius, the error in dead reckoning amounted to i° 18' 
south and 2 0 21' west, which might be reasonably attributed to the 
current. 
On the 1 ith we ran into Simon's Bay, and captain Tomkinson 
set off immediately for Cape Town with his despatches to vice-ad- 
miral Bertie and His Excellency the earl of Caledon ; he took also a 
letter from me to the admiral, making application, conformably to 
my instructions, for the earliest passage to England ; and requesting, 
if any circumstance should place general De Caen within his power, 
that he would be pleased to demand my journal from him, and cause 
it to be transmitted to the Admiralty. I went on shore next morn- 
ing and waited upon colonel sir Edward Butler, the commanding 
officer at Simon’s Town; and learning that. 4 n India packet had put 
into Table Bay, on her way to England, made preparation for going 
over on the following day. At noon, however, a telegraphic signal 
expressed the admiral’s desire to see me immediately ; and as the 
packet was expected to stop only a short time, I hoped it was for the 
purpose of embarking in her, and hastened over with horses and a 
dragoon guide furnished by the commandant ; but to my mortifica- 
tion, the packet was standing out of Table Bay at the time I alighted 
at the admiral’s door, and no other opportunity for England pre- 
sented itself for more than six weeks afterward. 
During the tedious time of waiting at Cape Town for a pas- 
