[ 55 1 1 
Wind at South- weft, or near that Point, which 
fometimes attends them to their very Port. This 
Wind cannot have its Rife in that Ocean, nor can it 
come from any Continent that lies to the North, or 
even Weft of it 5 therefore I conclude, that it muft be 
an Eddy of the Trade-wind. 
But to all this it may be objected, that the Sea- 
current fets out of the Gulph of Florida towards the 
North; whereas, I fay, the Wind comes towards th^ 
North-eaft. Sailors, it feems, take no farther Notice 
of thefe Currents, than while they are near Head- 
lands, where they are ftrongeft, and affedt their Na- 
vigation moft. But there feems to me to be a Necef- 
lity of the Continuance of this Current much farther 
than the Gulph of Florida , and of its taking new 
Directions from the North towards the North-eaft, 
and thence even towards the South, before it be 
quite fpent. For it muft be a vaft Quantity of Water 
that is driven by the whole Breadth of the Trade- 
wind, from Africa to the Shores of America ; tire 
far greater Part of which, as ‘Dampier fuppofes, doth 
flow by the Promontory of Cape St. Auguftin 
Wcftward. This great Flux of Water has found a 
Paflagc out towards the North, between Florida and 
Cuba ; which is the Reafon, that, norwithftanding the 
Current fets Weftward, the Sea in the Weft- Indies 
never rifes. Here we lee, that the Middle Ocean is 
at a great and conftant Expcncc of Water; it muft 
therefore want a Supply, and no Supply fo natural, 
as for it to have its own Water again; which, after 
it hath palled the Gulph of Florida , meets with one 
Check (till after another, till it returns to the Place 
from whence it came. 
For 
