48(5 CUR 
that it was ftampt; for he is hud to be rich in cattle, in 
filver, and in gold. Arbuthnot .—Generally received; un- 
contradided ; authoritative.—Many ftrange bruits are 
received for current. Sidney.— I have collected the facts, 
with all poffible impartiality, from the current hiftories 
of thofe times. Swift. —Common; general.—•They have 
been trained up in one fet of notions, without ever hear¬ 
ing or knowing what other opinions are current among 
mankind. Watts .—Popular; fuch as is eftablilhed by vul¬ 
gar eftimation.—We are alfo to confider the difference 
between worth and merit, ftriftly taken: that is a man's 
intrinfic, this his current, value ; which is lefs or more, 
as men have occafion for him. Grew. —Fafnionable ; po¬ 
pular: t 
Oft leaving what is natural and fit, 
The current folly proves our ready wit; 
And authors think their reputation fafe, 
Which lives as long as fools are pleas’d to laugh. Pope . 
PafTable ; fuch as may be allowed or admitted : 
Fouler than heart can think thee, thou canft make 
No excufe current, but to hang thyfelf. Shakefpcare. 
What is now palling; what is at prefent in its courfe: 
as, the current year. 
CUR'RENT,yi A running (beam, or flux of water 
in any direction : 
Heav’n her Eridanus no more fhall boaft, 
Whofe fame in thine, like letter current,' s loft ; 
Thy nobler dreams fhall vifit Jove’s abodes. 
To fliine among the ftars, and bathe the gods. Denham. 
In navigation, currents are certain progreflive motions of 
the water of the fea in leveral places, either quire down 
to the bottom, or to a certain determinate depth ; by 
which a (hip may happen to be carried more fwiftly, or 
retarded in her courfe, according to the direction of the 
current, with or againft the way of the fhip. Harris. 
The Jetting of the current, is that point of the compafs 
towards which the waters run ; and the drift of a current 
is the rate it runs in an hour. Currents in the fea, are 
either natural or general, as ariling from the diurnal 
rotation of the earth on its axis, or the tides, 8 cc. or 
accidental and particular, caufed by the waters being 
driven againft promontories, or into gulfs and (freights ; 
from whence they are forced back, and thus difturb the 
natural flux ot the fea. The currents are fo violent un¬ 
der the equator, where the mo'ion of the earth is great- 
eft, that they hurry veTels very fpeedily from Africa to 
America; but abfolutely prevent their return the fame 
way : fo that (hips are forced to run as far as the 40th 
or 45th degree of north latitude, to fall into the return 
of the current again, to bring them home to Europe. 
It is (hewn by governor Pownal, that this current per¬ 
forms a continual circulation, fetting out from the Guinea 
coaft in Africa, for example, from thence crofting (fraight 
over the Atlantic ocean, and fo fetting into the gulf of 
Mexico by the fouth (ide of it; then fweeping round by 
the bottom of the gulf, it ilfies out by the north fide of 
it, and thence takes a direction north-eafterly along the 
coaft of North America, till it arrives near Newfound¬ 
land, where it is turned by a rounding motion backward 
acrofs the Atlantic again, upon the coafts of Europe, 
and from thence fouth ward again to the coaft of Africa, 
from whence it fet out. In the < (freights of Gibraltar, 
the currents fet in by the fouth fide,, fweeo along the 
coaft of Africa to Egypt, by Paleftine, and return by 
the northern file, or European coafts, a id iffhe-out again 
by the northern (ide of the (freights. The great violence 
and danger of the fea in the lfreights of Magellan, is at¬ 
tributed to two contrary currents letting in, one from 
the fouth, the other from the north, fea. 
It is a circumlLtnce well known to feameii, that (hips, 
in co ning from the Atlantic, and (leering a courfe for 
the Britih Channel, in a parallel Tomewliat to the fouth 
of the Scilly Elands; do, notwithfeanding, often find 
4 
CUR 
thennfelves to the north of thofe ifiands: or, in other 
words, in the mouth of the St. George’s or of the Brif- 
tol Channel. This extraordinary error has paffed for 
the effects, either of bad fteerage, bad obfervations of 
latitude, or the indraught of the Briflol Channel : but 
none of th.efe account for it fatisfadloril ; becaule, ad¬ 
mitting that at times there may be an indraught, it can¬ 
not be fuppofed to extend to Scilly ; and tiie cafe has 
happened in weather the mod favourable for navigating, 
and for taking obfervations. The confequences of this 
deviation from the intended track have very often been 
fatal: particularly in the lofs of the Nancy packet, in our 
own times ; and that of fir Cloudefiey Shovel, and others 
of his fleet, at the beginning of the eighteenth century. 
Numbers of cafes, equally melancholy, but of lefs ce¬ 
lebrity, have occurred 4 and many others, in which the 
danger has been imminent, but not fatal, have fcarcely 
reached the public ear. All of thefe have been referred 
to accident; and therefore no attempt feems to have been 
made to inveftigate the caufe of them. Major Rennel is 
however of opinion, that they are to be imputed folely 
to a current : and he therefore endeavours to inveftigate 
both that, and its effects ; in order that feamen may be 
apprized of the times, when they are particularly to ex¬ 
pert it, in any confiderable degree of ftrength ; for then 
only it is likely to occafion mifehief; the current that 
prevails at ordinary times being, probably, too weak ta 
produce an error in the reckoning, equal to the diffe¬ 
rence of parallel, between the fouth part of Scilly, and 
the track in which a commander, prudent in his mea- 
fures, but unfufpicious of a current, would choofe ta 
fail. The original caufe of this current, he fays, is the 
prevalence of wefterly winds in the Atlantic, which im¬ 
pel the waters along the north coaft of Spain, and accu¬ 
mulate them in the bay of Bifcay ; whence they are pro. 
jerted along the coaft of France, in a dirertion north- 
v.eft by weft, to the weft of Scilly and Ireland. The 
major afiigns ftrong reafons for the exiftence of this cur¬ 
rent between Ulhant and Ireland, in a chart of the tracts 
of the Hector and Atlas, Ea-ft-India fliips, in 1778 and 
.1787. His obfervations on the fubjert in general require 
a continued infpertion of his chart, and, confequently, 
cannot be,here inferted. He. obferves, 1 ft. If a fhip 
erodes it obliquely, that is, in an.eaft by fouth, or more 
foutherly direction, ftie will continue much longer in it, 
and of courfe be more affected by it, than if (he crofted 
it more dirertly. The fame confequence will happen, 
if (be erodes it with light winds. 2dly, A good obferq 
vation of latitude, at noon, would be thought a fufScient 
warrant for running eaftward during a long night; yet 
as it may be poffible to remain in the current long enough 
to be canned from a parallel, which may be deemed a 
very fafe one, to that of the rocks of Scilly, it would 
appear prudent, after experiencing a continuance of ftrong 
wefterly winds in the Atlantic, and approaching the Chan¬ 
nel with light foutherly winds, either to make Ulhant in 
time of peace, or at all events to keep in the parallel of 
4S°45', at the higheft. 3d 1 y', Ships bound to the weft- 
ward, from the mouth of the Channel, with the wind in 
the fouth-weft quarter, (hould prefer the larboard-tack. 
4thly, He recommends the (ending a veftel with time-keepers 
on-board, to examine the foundings between the paral¬ 
lels of Scilly and Ulhant, from the meridian of the Li¬ 
zard-point as far weft as the moderate- depths extend. 
See th-' article Navigation. 
CUR'RENT -1 SLAND, a fmal'l ifland in the Pacific 
ocean: Lat. 4. 40. N. Ion. 134. 3. E. Greenwich. 
GUR'RENTLY, add. In a conftant motion. Without 
oppofition.—The very caiife which maketli the (imple 
and ignorant to think they even fee how the word of 
God runneth currently on your fide, is, that their minds 
are foreft.illed, and their conceits perverted beforehand. 
Hooker. —Popularly; falhibnably; generally. Without 
ceafing. - 
CUR'RENTNESS, f. Circulation. General recep¬ 
tion. 
