^81 
dozm a SMp''s Trade on Sea Charts. 
Indiaman, was also in company. She had been sent with troops 
to the Island of Ceylon, and was now returning with invalids to 
the number of several hundred, together with upwards of fifty 
w'omen and children. From what circumstance, whether, of 
ignorance, or mistaken and most culpable economy, I do not 
know, this ship was unprovided with a time-keeper, and there- 
fore, though commanded by an active and intelligent seamen, 
she was not, owing to this single omission, at all in a condition 
to approach this coast, especially at such a stormy season, when 
lunar observations were scarcely to be hoped for, and when the 
current was most violent and irregular. 
It was the daily practice to telegraph the longitude to thq 
Arniston, and as long as the fleet kept together, no disadvan- 
tage was experienced by her having no chronometer. But we 
had scarcely reached the eastern edge of the bank of Lagullas, 
when a violent gale scattered the ships in various directions, 
and the unfortunate Arniston was left to shift for herself. By 
reference to the Victory’s track on the chart which accompanies 
this notice, Plate VIII., it will be seen to what a variety of cur- 
rents ^ve were exposed, from' the 18th to the 28th of May; 
in this interval we had moreover three heavy gales of wind ; 
from which it will be obvious, that by dead reckoning alone, it 
was altogether impossible to tell the situation of the ship. In 
fact, on board the Victor, I found, that after making every al- 
lowance for currents, which the experience of others on this well 
known ground entitled me to use, the dead reckoning was still 
upw^ards of 100 miles from the truth. But, after all, these ob- 
servations are a mere guess. 
Meanwhile, the Commfinder of the Arniston, after making 
every possible allowance, conceived, at the end of ten or twelve 
days, that he must have passed to the zvestward of the Cape of 
Good Hope, by a very considerable distance, and without hesi- 
tation, bore up with a south-easterly gale of wind, and steered, 
as he thought, for St Plelena. He had not proceeded, how- 
ever, many hours, before the land was discovered a-head, and 
on each bow ; they were embayed, in short, a hundred miles 
cast of the Cape, and though they let go their anchors and 
cut away their masts, the gale drove them on the coast, and of 
the whole crew, soldiers, women, and children, only four or five 
sailors reached tlie shore alive ! 
VOL. II. NO. 4. AriiiL 1820. 
T 
