water. They are not so
often seen in fair weather; being foul-weather birds, as our seamen call
them, and presaging a storm when they come about a ship; who for that
reason don't love to see them. In a storm they will hover close under the
ship's stern in the wake of the ship (as it is called) or the smoothness
which the ship's passing has made on the sea; and there as they fly
(gently then) they pat the water alternately with their feet as if they
walked upon it; though still upon the wing. And from hence the seamen
give them the name of petrels in allusion to St. Peter's walking upon the
Lake of Gennesareth.

We also saw many bunches of seaweeds in the latitude of 39 32 and, by
judgment near, the meridian of the island Tristan d'Acunha: and then we
had about 2 degrees 20 minutes east variation: which was now again
decreasing as we ran to the eastward, till near the meridian of
Ascension; where we found little or no variation: but from thence, as we
ran farther to the east, our variation increased westerly.

OF A BIRD THAT SHOWS THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE TO BE NEAR: OF THE
SEA-RECKONINGS, AND VARIATIONS: AND A TABLE OF ALL THE VARIATIONS
OBSERVED IN THIS VOYAGE.

Two days before I made the Cape of Good Hope my variation was 7 degrees
58 minutes west. I was then in 43 degrees 27 minutes east longitude from
Cape Salvador, being in latitude 35 degrees 30 minutes, this was the
first of June. The second of June I saw a large black fowl, with a
whitish flat bill, fly by us; and took great notice of it, because in the
East India Waggoner, pilot-book, there is mention made of large fowls, as
big as ravens, with white flat bills and black feathers, that fly not
above 30 leagues from the Cape, and are looked on as a sign of one's
being near it. My reckoning made me then think myself above 90 leagues
from the Cape, according to the longitude which the Cape hath in the
common sea-charts: so that I was in some doubt whether these were the
right fowls spoken of in the Waggoner; or whether those fowls might not
fly farther off shore than is there mentioned; or whether, as it proved,
I might not be nearer the Cape than I reckoned myself to be; for I found,
soon after, that I was not then above 25 or 30 leagues at most from the
Cape. Whether the fault were in the charts laying down the Cape too much
to the east from Brazil, or were rather in our reckoning, I could not
tell: but our reckonings are liable to such uncertainties from steera