2 4 o COOK ’s voyage. 
Java Head, we found, by obfervation, that our error in longi- 
tude was only two degrees, and it was the fame when we had 
made only nineteen. This error might be owing partly to a 
current fetting to the weftward, partly to our not making proper 
allowances for the fetting of the fea before which we run, and 
perhaps to an error in the affirmed longitude of Java Head. If 
that longitude is erroneous, the error muft be imputed to the 
imperfection of the charts of which I made ufe in reducing the 
Ipngitude from Batavia, to that place, for there can be no doubt 
but that the longitude ofBatavia is well determined. After we 
had paffed the longitude of 307°, the effects of the welterly 
currents began to be confiderable; for in three days, our error 
in longitude was i 9 5 : the velocity of the current kept in- 
creafing, as we proceeded to the weftward, in fo much that for 
five days fucceftively after we made the land, we were driven 
to the S. W. or S. W. by W. not lefs than twenty leagues a 
day; and this continued till we were within fixty or feventy 
leagues of the Cape, where the current fet fometimes one way, 
and fometimes the other, though inclining rather to the weft- 
ward. 
After the boobies had left us, we faw no more birds till we 
got nearly a breaft of Madagafcar, where, in latitude 27 " J S. 
we faw an albatrols, and after that time we faw them every day 
in great numbers, with Birds of feveral other forts, particularly 
one about as big as a duck, of a very dark brown colour, with 
a yellowilh bill. Thefe birds became more numerous as we 
approached the Ihore, and as foon as we got into foundings we 
f 4 w gannets, which we continued to fee as long as we were upon 
the bank which ftretches off Anguillas to the diftance of forty 
leagues, and extends along the Ihore to the eaftward, from 
Cape Falfe, according to fome charts, one hundred and fixty 
leagues. The real extent of this bank is not exactly known; 
it is however ufeful as a diredtion to (hipping when tc haul in, 
in order to make the land. * 
While we lay here, the Houghton Indiaman failed for 
England, who, during her ftay in India, loft by ficknefs be- 
tween thirty and forty men; and when Ihe left the Cape had 
many in a helplefs condition with the fcurvy. Other Ihips 
Buffered in the fame proportion, who had been little more than 
twelve months abfent from England; our fufrerings therefore 
were comparatively light, confidering that we had been abfent 
near three times as long. 
Having Iain here to. recover the fick, procure fto res, and per- 
form feveral neceftary operations upon the (hip and rigging, 
till the 13th of April, I then got all the fick on board, feveral 
of whom were ftill in a dangerous ftate, and having taken leave 
of the Governor, I unmoored the next morning, and got ready 
to fail. 
The 
