HISTORY OF MAURITIUS. 
40 ? 
the Bon Conseil of sixty-four guns, bound to Manilla, when I was in the latitude 
of the Bay of Antongil, and found the inclination near 40°; which makes 7 0 , or 
of difference with that which I had observed in that Bay; but I was then near 
twelve hundred leagues to the east of it. It is certain, therefore, that the inclination 
of the compass cannot be of any use in finding the longitude; nevertheless, I soon 
perceived that the needle would not become horizontal till we had passed the line, 
and had even advanced a little into the northern hemisphere. 
“ I continued my attention to the needle till I saw it horizontal; I continued it 
also in the Straits of Sunda, where the sea being as smooth as a glass mirror, the 
deck of a ship is as steady a position as the earth itself; and there is every oppor¬ 
tunity to repeat observations. Under the line, the inclination was about 15 0 ; and 
the needle was horizontal at 8° north latitude. 
“ Thus the loadstone has no inclination at io|° of south latitude in our ocean, 
and at 8° of north latitude in the Indian seas ; that is to say, in the seas of Siam and 
Camboia. I have arranged a very comprehensive table of my observations, and in 
the margin I have marked, with the different degrees of latitude,, my distance from 
the land at every observation.—The result of them is as follows. 
“ In returning from Manilla to Pondicherry, on board a Portuguese ship, by the 
Straits of Malacca, between i^- 0 and 4 0 of north latitude, where the sea is smooth 
and tranquil, I traversed them with the compass in my hand, to Negapatam, in 11 0 
north latitude. From the observations which I made at this time, I found that 
the needle is horizontal in these seas, in io^° of latitude near the Peninsula of India, 
nearly the same as it is on this side of Africa, in io§-° south latitude. This is about 
2° more to the north than I had seen it, in the Seas of Siam and Camboia, when I 
was on board the Bon Conseil. 
“ It was my intention to verify, on my return into these seas, when I should have 
got into 8-j° of latitude, my observations on board the Bon Conseil, but that was 
not possible. We were driven onwards by the north-east monsoon, which is a very 
strong wind in these latitudes. The sea there runs very high, and we had the wind 
abaft. Besides, our ship was very heavy, and as it rolled, the water frequently 
dashed in through the gang-ways. I attempted to make some observations, but the 
motion of the ship was so violent, as to render every endeavour of that nature im¬ 
practicable. 
