PORTER’S JOURNAL. 33- 
met in a more northern latitude, but they are at all times to be 
met to the north of the line. 
On the afternoon our longitude, by a very accurate chronome¬ 
ter, was 26° 41' 39" west, the latitude at meridian was 3° 2' 6" 
north. 
On the evening of the 9th, being in the lat. of 1 ° N. and long. 
28° 45' west, hove the ship to, for fear of running in the night 
past Penedro de St. Pedro. We were not enabled to strike into 
the latitude of the island farther to the eastward than 2 7° west, 
on account of the scantiness of the winds; nor did 1 conceive it 
would be safe to run farther west than 29° 15', for fear of not 
being able afterwards to make the island of Fernando Noronha. 
I therefore, at 8 o’clock the next morning, finding myself in that 
longitude (which was determined by the lunar observation the 
preceding evening, with which the result given by the chronome¬ 
ter agreed within a few minutes), I gave up the search. I at 
that time had a view of 25 miles to the westward, and am ena¬ 
bled to state positively, that the island of Penedro de St. Pedro, 
or St. Pauls, does not exist between the latitudes of 55' and 1^ 
20' N. and the longitudes of 27° and 29° 40' west. I had, how¬ 
ever, to regret, a few hours afterwards, that I did not extend the 
research farther, as a large flock of gulls and other birds that fre¬ 
quent the shores every night, convinced me that I was in the 
neighbourhood of land. 
In our run from the latitude of 10° north, we have constantly 
experienced a current setting to the northward and westward, 
at the rate of from 12 to 18 miles in 24 hours, and was found to 
be strongest as we approached the equator, but less inclining to 
the westward. This current, at this season of the year, seems 
difficult to account for, if we do not attribute it to the effects of 
the strong S.E. trades to the south of the line, and this seems 
admissible. The S.E. trades, when the sun is in the tropic of 
Capricorn, may be supposed to extend as far south as the lati¬ 
tude of 28° or 30°, propelling a current of water toward the 
coast of Brazils ; it there follows the obliquity of the east coast, 
and flows off to the northward and eastward, until it meets the 
east and N.E. trades to the north of the line, which, when at the 
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