sary allowance made for lee-way, heave
of the sea, and other such circumstances, I cannot attribute those
errors that did happen to any other cause but currents; but more
particularly when the error was constantly the same way for several days
successively.

On the contrary, if we find the ship a-head of the reckoning on one day,
and a-stern of it on another, we have reason to believe that such errors
are owing to accidental causes, and not to currents. This seems to have
been the case in our passage between England and Teneriffe. But, from
the time of our leaving that island, till the 15th of August, being then
in the latitude of 12 deg. N. and longitude 24 deg. W. the ship was carried 1 deg.
20' of longitude to the westward of her reckoning. At this station the
currents took a contrary direction, and set to E.S.E. at the rate of
twelve or fourteen miles a day, or twenty-four hours, till we arrived
into the latitude of 5 deg. N. and longitude of 20 deg. W.; which was our most
easterly situation after leaving the Cape de Verde Islands till we got
to the southward. For in this situation the wind came southerly, and we
tacked and stretched to the westward; and, for two or three days, could
not find that our reckoning was affected by any current. So that I
judged we were between the current that generally, if not constantly,
sets to the east upon the coast of Guinea, and that which sets to the
west toward the coast of Brazil. This westerly current was not
considerable till we got into 2 deg. N. and 25 deg. W. From this station to 3 deg.
S. and 30 deg. W. the ship, in the space of four days, was carried 115 miles
in the direction of S.W. by W. beyond her reckoning; an error by far too
great to have any other cause but a strong current running in the same
direction. Nor did its strength abate here; but its course was afterward
more westerly, and to the N. of W., and off Cape Augustine N. as I have
already mentioned. But this northerly current did not exist at twenty or
thirty leagues to the southward of that Cape, nor any other, that I
could perceive, in the remaining part of the passage. The little
difference we afterward found between the reckoning and observations,
might very well happen without the assistance of currents, as will
appear by the table of Day's Works.[90]

[Footnote 90: The curious reader will find some interesting, though not
decisive, remarks concerning the currents of the Atlantic Ocean in
Clerke's Prog