d lessened, and the north-east swell, which, on the 16th and 17th,
had been so heavy as to make the ships labour exceedingly, was much abated.
The next day we saw no appearance of land; and at noon, we steered a point
more to the southward, viz. W. by S., in the hopes of finding the trade-
winds, (which blew almost invariably from the E. by N.,) fresher as we
advanced within the tropic. It is somewhat singular that, though we saw no
birds in the forenoon, yet toward evening we had again a number of boobies
and man-of-war birds about us. This seemed to indicate that we had passed
the land from whence the former flights had come, and that we were
approaching some other low island.[12]

The wind continued very moderate, with fine weather, till the 23d, when it
freshened from the N.E. by E., and increased to a strong gale, which split
some of our old sails, and made the running rigging very frequently give
way. This gale lasted twelve hours; it then became more moderate, and
continued so till the 25th at noon, when we entirely lost it, and had only
a very light air.

On the 26th, in the morning, we thought we saw land to the W.S.W.; but,
after running about sixteen leagues in that direction, we found our
mistake; and night coming on, we again steered W. Our latitude, at this
time, was 19 deg. 45', which was the greatest southing we made in this run; our
longitude was 183 deg., and variation 12 deg. 45' E. We continued in this course,
with little alteration in the wind, till the 29th, when it shifted to the
S.E. and S.S.E., and, for a few hours in the night, it was in the W.; the
weather being dark and cloudy, with much rain. We had met, for some days
past, several turtles, one of which was the smallest I ever saw, not
exceeding three inches in length. We were also accompanied by man-of-war
birds, and boobies of an unusual kind, being quite white, except the tip of
the wing, which was black, and easily mistaken, at first sight, for
gannets.

The light winds which we had met with for some time past, with the present
unsettled state of the weather, and the little appearance of any change for
the better, induced Captain Clerke to alter his plan of keeping within the
tropical latitudes; and accordingly, at six this evening, we began to steer
N.W. by N., at which time our latitude was 20 deg. 23', and our longitude 180 deg.
40'. During the continuance of the light winds, which prevailed almost
constantly ever since our departure