On the 27th, spake with Captain Furneaux, who informed us that one of his petty officers was dead. At this time we had not one sick on board; although we had every thing of this kind to fear from the rain we had had, which is a great promoter of sickness in hot climates. To prevent this, and agreeable to some hints I had from Sir Hugh Palliser, and from Captain Campbell, I took every necessary precaution, by airing and drying the ship with fires made betwixt decks, smoaking, &c. and by obliging the people to air their bedding, wash and dry their clothes, whenever there was an opportunity. A neglect of these things causeth a disagreeable smell below, affects the air, and seldom fails to bring on sickness; but more especially in hot and wet weather.
We now began to see some of those birds which are said never to fly far from land; that is, man of war, and tropic birds, gannets, &c. No land, however, that we knew of, could be nearer than eighty leagues.
On the 30th, at noon, being in the latitude of 2° 35ʹ north, longitude 7° 30ʹ west, and the wind having veered to the east of south, we tacked and stretched to the S. W. In the latitude of 0° 52ʹ north, longitude 9° 25ʹ west, we had one calm day, which gave us an opportunity of trying the current in a boat. We found it set to the north one-third of a mile an hour. We had reason to expect this from the difference we frequently found between the observed latitude, and that given by the log: and Mr. Kendal’s watch showed us, that it set to the East also. This was fully confirmed by the lunar observations; when it appeared, that we were 3° more to the east than the common reckoning. At the time of trying the current, the mercury in the thermometer in the open air stood at 751⁄2; and when immerged in the surface of the sea, at 74; but when immerged eighty fathoms deep (where it remained fifteen minutes) when it came up, the mercury stood at 66. At the same time we sounded, without finding bottom with a line of two hundred and fifty fathoms.
The calm was succeeded by a light breeze at S. W. which kept veering by little and little to the south, and at last to the eastward of south, attended with clear serene weather. At length, on the 8th of September, we crossed the line in the longitude of 8° west; after which the ceremony of ducking, &c. generally practised on this occasion, was not omitted.
The wind now veering more and more to the east, and blowing a gentle top-gallant gale, in eight days it carried us into the latitude of 9° 30ʹ south, longitude 18° west. The weather was pleasant; and we daily saw some of those birds which are looked upon as signs of the vicinity of land; such as boobies, men of war, tropic birds, and gannets. We supposed they came from the isle of St. Matthew, or Ascension; which isles we must have passed at no great distance.
On the 27th, in the latitude of 25° 29ʹ, longitude 24° 54ʹ, we discovered a sail to the west, standing after us. She was a snow; and the colours she showed either a Portuguese or St. George’s Ensign, the distance being too great to distinguish the one from the other; and I did not choose to wait to get nearer, or to speak with her.
The wind now began to be variable. It first veered to the north, where it remained two days with fair weather. Afterwards it came round by the west to the south, where it remained two days longer, and after a few hours’ calm sprang up at S. W. But here it remained not long before it veered to S. E. E., and to the north of east; blew fresh, and by squalls, with showers of rain.
With these winds we advanced but slowly, and without meeting with any thing remarkable till the 11th of October, when at 6h 24m 12s, by Mr. Kendal’s watch, the moon rose about four digits eclipsed; and soon after we prepared to observe the end of the eclipse, as follows, viz.
| h. | m. | s. | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| By me at | 6 | 53 | 51 | with a common refractor. | ||||
| By Mr. Forster | 6 | 55 | 23 | |||||
| By Mr. Wales | 6 | 54 | 57 | quadrant telescope. | ||||
| By Mr. Pickersgill | 6 | 55 | 30 | three feet refractor. | ||||
| By Mr. Gilbert | 6 | 53 | 24 | naked eye. | ||||
| By Mr. Hervey | 6 | 55 | 34 | quadrant telescope. | ||||
| Mean | 6 | 54 | 461⁄2 | by the watch. | ||||
| Watch slow of apparent time | 0 | 3 | 59 | |||||
| Apparent time | 6 | 58 | 451⁄2 | end of the eclipse. | ||||
| Ditto | 7 | 25 | 0 | at Greenwich. | ||||
| Dif. of longitude | 0 | 26 | 141⁄2 | = | 6° | 33ʹ | 30ʺ | |
| The longitude observed by Mr. Wales was: | ||||||||
| By the ☽ and α Aquilæ | 5° | 51ʹ | Mean | 6 | 13 | 0 | ||
| By the ☽ and Aldebaran | 6 | 35 | ||||||
| By Mr. Kendal’s watch | 6° | 53ʹ7⁄8 | ||||||
The next morning, having but little wind, we hoisted a boat out, to try if there was any current, but found none. From this time to the 16th, we had the wind between the north and east, a gentle gale. We had for some time ceased to see any of the birds before mentioned; and were now accompanied by albatrosses, pintadoes, sheerwaters, &c. and a small grey peterel, less than a pigeon. It has a whitish belly, and grey back, with a black stroke across from the tip of one wing to the tip of the other. These birds sometimes visited us in great flights. They are, as well as the pintadoes, southern birds; and are, I believe, never seen within the tropics, or north of the line.