in the latitude of 2 deg. 35' N., longitude 7 deg. 30'
W., and the wind having veered to the east of south, we tacked and
stretched to the S.W. In the latitude of 0 deg. 52' N., longitude 9 deg. 25' W., 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 shewed
us that it set to the east also. This was fully confirmed by the lunar
observations; when it appeared that we were 3 deg. 0' 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 75-1/2; 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 out finding the 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.

1772 September

At length, on the 8th of September, we crossed the Line in the longitude
of 8 deg. W.; 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 9 deg. 30' S.,
longitude 18 deg. W. 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, man 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 deg. 29', longitude 24 deg. 54', we discovered a
sail to the west standing after us. She was a snow; and the colours she
shewed, 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,