hence the error which was so fatal to us.

According to my Comrade Correard, we cannot pass over in silence, a scene
which took place in the morning. The Captain was deceived in the most
singular manner; about five or six o'clock he was called up; some persons
who were on deck persuaded him that a great cloud which was in the
direction of Cape Blanco and in truth very near it, was that Cape itself.
My companion in misfortune, who sees clearly, and who knows how to
distinguish between a rock and a cloud, because he has seen enough of them
in the Alps, where he was born, told those gentlemen that it was only a
cape of vapour; he was answered that the instructions which the minister
had given to the captain prescribed to him to make this cape; but that we
had passed it above ten leagues; that at this moment the question was, to
make the captain believe that the instructions of the minister had been
punctually followed, and that they desired to persuade him, which was not
difficult, that this cloud was the Cape. Many have deposed, as we have been
told, that Cape Blanco, had been seen in the evening of the 1st of July: we
venture to affirm that that rock was not seen at all.

After this pretended reconnaissance of the 2d July, if we were persuaded
that we had seen that Cape, we should have steered west, to double the bank
of Arguin; the danger once passed, the course should have been again
directed to the south which is the route to Senegal; but he who for some
days past had guided the course of the ship, thought proper to persuade the
captain, to take immediately the southerly course, and to steer for
Portendic. We are ignorant of the reasons which induced the commander of
the frigate to give his confidence to a man who did not belong to the
staff. He was an ex-officer of the marine, who had just left an English
prison, where he had been for ten years; he certainly had not acquired
there knowledge superior to that of the officers on board, whom this mark
of deference could not but offend. M. de Chaumareys, while we were doubling
Cape Barbas, presided at the farce performed in passing the Tropic, while
he who had gained his confidence, was walking up and down the deck of the
frigate, coolly observing the numerous dangers, spread along the coast.
Several persons remonstrated against this management of the vessel,
particularly Mr. Picard the greffier of Senegal, who had struck upon the
bank of Arguin eight years before; this en