4thly. That if calmer seas were our object, we should find them in going eastward as well as southward; that we must not expect to meet with the trade winds at that season but in a very remote southern latitude; that in crossing the latitude of Bermudas, we should meet with heavy squalls, and bad weather; that in the latitude between that and the trade winds, we must expect variable winds, and particularly long calms, which are often more dangerous, and more to be dreaded than hard winds.
5thly. That in a voyage to Cadiz, we should have nothing to apprehend from the enemy, but to Martinique, everything.
6thly. That if we should arrive safe at Martinique, we should probably be detained there until next Spring; that the vessels, which usually sail from thence for France every fall, would have departed before the time we should reach the Island; that he had reason to believe it would be very difficult, if not impracticable, to obtain a frigate, and, among other reasons, urged the absence of Count d'Estaing, and the improbability that any subordinate officer would undertake without his orders to grant us one, even admitting what was very unlikely, that one might be spared from the service.
7thly. That the ship might remain long at Martinique without being made ready for sea, for want of naval stores, provisions, &c.
These were M. Gerard's reasons for our steering for Cadiz, by the way of the Azores, and I do not remember to have afterwards heard an additional one. Whether the French officers really thought them conclusive, or whether they found it convenient to make a compliment of their sentiments to a gentleman very able to serve them, is uncertain; but I believe they in appearance inclined to M. Gerard's opinion, and gave him implied reasons to think their sentiments corresponded with his.
The matter appeared to me in a serious light, and to require caution on many accounts. Every consideration called me to Spain; private as well as public good forbade a difference with M. Gerard. I had reason to believe him well disposed towards me; I perceived, clearly, that he could not with any patience admit the idea of being absent from Europe at so important a season, and that he could scarcely treat with common decency the reasons urged for going to Martinique. Hence it appeared obvious, that should I be the means of his losing his objects, or should any public inconveniences result from our not being in Europe during the winter, I should be censured, not only by him, but by all those who judge of the propriety of a measure only by its consequences, of which number are the far greater part of mankind. Thus circumstanced, I found myself in a very unpleasant situation, without any way of extricating myself, but by agreeing to a sort of middle proposal; viz. to order the Captain to land us on one of the Western Islands, and then leave the ship to shift for herself. This would have satisfied M. Gerard, and we should have been as good friends as ever. I thought it my duty, however, to form my decision carefully, and honestly, and abide by it firmly. It was that we should proceed to Martinique. Some of the reasons for it are set forth in the report of the council of officers. The whole together were briefly these.
1st. That the officers of the ship, including the carpenter, who were to be presumed to be better judges than M. Gerard or myself, were of opinion, that we ought not to attempt to go to Europe, and had this reason stood single and unexplained, I should not readily have ventured to reject it, especially as it appeared to me against the interest of the officers to come to the West Indies, and I have heard them constantly and uniformly regret the necessity of it; but I also thought they decided on good grounds; for
2dly. The rudder daily gave us infinite trouble, almost everyday a pennant breaking, and on every such occasion the ship for some time left to the direction of the wind and waves, a circumstance which might be fatal in hard weather, and near land; the quantity of cordage consumed in this way of steering; the doubt of our having sufficient for the purpose without stripping the guns, which would thereby be rendered useless; the rudder irons daily becoming more and more loose, and, by the nails drawing out, opening a passage for the water into the stem of the ship. By this circumstance our bread had been damaged; the danger of our being obliged to get rid of the rudder entirely, and steering only by the cable, which in northern seas, and winter season, is very inadequate. This event would have arrived in case either of the eye bolts in the rudder had given way, as the first mentioned one had done, or the upper irons become entirely loose; and for this event it was thought necessary to prepare, by removing the obstacles to unhanging the rudder. Indeed the upper irons in the course of our passage here, with fair winds and no storms, became so loose as to render it necessary to lash the head of the rudder with ropes to a bolt fixed for the purpose in the cabin floor.
3dly. The sails we had left were bad, having been originally made, as Mr Vaughan the second Lieutenant told me, of damaged canvass; they frequently split; we had none to replace them, nor a sufficient stock of twine to mend them, eight pounds only being left of the twenty odd we brought from Philadelphia; nor were we much better supplied with cordage, for which there was a daily demand and some of which was very bad.
4thly. Our jury masts were not calculated for hard weather, the foremast being sprung a few feet below the top, and not able to endure a hard storm.