20 
CAPE CUADEL. 
situated four or five leagues to the westward of Ashtola ; and on the 
11th of February, at noon, we were a-breast of Cape Guadel. The 
extraordinary shapes of the lands on this part of the coast were not 
new to me, for I have described them in my former voyage; but the 
illusion was so strong to those who had never yet seen them, that one 
of the party persisted in saying that he saw the ruins of a great and 
magnificent city. We did not approach near enough to ascertain the 
nature of the soil, but we judged from its general appearance that it 
was calcareous, and that it was the ordinary action of the elements 
which had broken its surface into shapes so irregular and fantastic. 
On the 12th of February, our weather was quite overcast, and both 
felt and looked like a gloomy November day in England. The sailors 
compared it to sailing up the Channel. The wind blew strong from 
the southward and eastward, and we dragged our tow through the 
water at the rate of ten knots in the hour. 
Cape we found was 24° 59' 15" N. and its longitude 64° 32' 45" E. We then stood W. 
^ N. until we brought Ashtola to bear N. 6°E. distance by cross-bearings eleven miles, which 
made the middle of the island in 25° 2' N. latitude, and in longitude 64° E. These ob¬ 
servations make the difference of longitude between Cape Arubah and the island of Ashtola 
32' 45", and the difference of latitude three miles; consequent!}', the distance between the 
Cape and the island is thirty-five miles, which agrees within a mile of Horsburgh’s Instruc¬ 
tions, for he calls the distance twelve leagues. The Admiralty Chart, compiled by Dalrymple, 
has no longitudes assigned. 
