e, to go very
well with Kendal's; I knew it could be depended on sufficiently
to carry on from one lunar observation to another, without any
material error; for although its rate of going was not so regular
as I could have wished, yet its variation would not in a week or
ten days have amounted to any thing of consequence; it was made
for me by Mr. John Brockbank, of Cornhill, London, upon an
improved principle of his own. The lunar observation, which I
never failed to take every opportunity, and which Lieutenant
Bradley also paid constant attention to, gave me reason to think,
by their near agreement with the watch, that it continued to go
well. On the 1st of December our longitude, by account, was
36 deg. 42' east; by the watch 36 deg. 48' east; and by distance
of sun and moon 36 deg. 24' east: latitude 40 deg. 05' south, and
the variation of the compass 29 deg. 40' west.

For three successive days both Mr. Bradley and myself had a
variety of distances, by which our account seemed to be very
correct. I now determined (if I could avoid it) never to get to
the northward of latitude 40 deg. 00' south, and to keep between
that parallel and 43 deg. or 44 deg. south. After the 3d, I
found, by altitudes taken for the watch, that we went farther to
the eastward than the log gave us, and no opportunity offered for
getting a lunar observation to compare with it until the 13th,
when both Mr. Bradley and I got several good distances of the sun
and moon, by which our longitude was 70 deg. 22' east, by the
watch 70 deg. 07' east, and by account 67 deg. 37' east.

On the 14th, the weather being very clear, we had another set
of distances, which gave our longitude 73 deg. 06' east, by the
watch 73 deg. 09' east, and by account 70 deg. 34' east. Again,
on the 15th, I observed with two different instruments, one by
Ramsden, and the other by Dolland, and the results agreed within
ten miles of longitude; the mean was 75 deg. 18' east, by the
watch 75 deg. 16' east, and by account 72 deg. 49' east. Mr.
Bradley's mean was also 75 deg. 18' east; so that, as I have
already observed, the ship seemed gaining on the account; but
there was no reason to believe, that in the middle of this very
extensive ocean we were ever subject to much current: I therefore
attribute this set to the eastward, to the large following sea,
which constantly attended us, since we had taken a more southerly
parallel. The variation of the compass continued to increa