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128 
cued anew, there fell a few large drops of rain, and tlie 
storm dispersed without our hearing any thunder. Mean- 
while it was curious to observe the effect of several black, 
isolated, and very low clouds, which passed the zenith. We 
felt the force of the wind augment or diminish progressively, 
according as small bodies of vesicular vapour approached 
or receded, while the electrometers, furnished with a long 
metallic roil and lighted match, showed no change of electric 
tension in the lower strata of the air. It is by help of 
these squalls, which alternate with dead calms, that the 
passage from the Canary Islands to the Antilles, or southern 
coast of America, is made in the months of June and July. 
Some Spanish navigators have lately proposed going to 
the West Indies and the coasts of Terra-Pinna by a course 
different from that which was taken by Columbus. They 
advise, instead of steering directly to the south in search 
of the trade-winds, to change both latitude aud longitude, 
in a diagonal line from Cape St. Vincent to America. This 
method, which shortens the way, cutting the tropic nearly 
twenty degrees west of the point where it is commonly cut 
by pilots, was several times successfully adopted by Admiral 
Gravina. That able commander, who fell at the battle of 
Trafalgar, arrived in 1S02 at St. Domingo, by the oblique 
passage, several days before the French fleet, though orders 
of the court of Madrid would have forced him to enter 
J’errol with his squadron, and stop there some time. 
This now system of navigation shortens the passage from 
Cadiz to Cutnana one-twentieth ; but as the tropic is 
attained only at the longitude of forty degrees, the chance 
of meeting with contrary winds, which blow sometimes from 
the south, and at other times from the south-west, is more 
unfavourable. In the old system, the disadvantage of 
making a longer passage is compensated by the certainty 
of catching the trade-winds in a shorter space of time, and 
keeping them the greater part of the passage. At the time 
of my abode in the Spanish colonies, I witnessed the arrival 
of several merchant-ships, which from the fear of privateers 
had chosen the oblique course, and had had a very short 
passage. 
Nothing can equal the beauty aud mildness of the climate 
