rier to ancient navigation. Comparing our own situation and views with those of De Gama and his followers, we are led to appreciate, as it deserves, their persevering boldness, while our admiration is excited by the progress of human invention and improvement, so peculiarly exemplified in the art of navigation. The stormy seas which wash the southern promontory of Africa, (to which was then given the appropriate name of Cap de las Tormentos,") are despised by the British seamen, whose vessel flies in security before the tempest, and while she rides on the billows and defies the storm," he carelessly sings as if unconscious of the warring elements around him. In the revolution of all sublunary affairs, affairs, when the past and the present are alike sunk in the oblivious abyss of time, when De Gama is no more heard of, and a faint tradition alone records the doubtful power and opulence of the British isles, then shall some other transcendent genius arise, who, braving this foaming ocean with equal difficulty and equal glory, shall claim the honour of a first discoverer. -Venient annis Secula seris; quibus oceanus SENECA MEDEA. Scarce had we cleared the land, ere the favourable wind left us, and veering to the eastward, continued to blow from that quarter for eleven days; but by the assistance assitance of strong easterly currents*, we were enabled to preserve our distance from the land. The constant wet and cold weather which now prevailed, required every care and attention to obviate its evil effects upon the convicts, many of whom, through mere carelessness when in fine weather, were now literally naked; the taylors were, therefore, employed in making up jackets and trowsers, from the materials sent on board for the purpose, which were distributed to those most in want. Slight dysenteries were for some time prevalent, but by the unremitting care of the surgeon, and the most minute attention to keeping the prisons well aired and dry, as well as to the personal cleanliness of the convicts, one man only Vide Addenda I. fell fell a victim to this disease. The incle ment weather had a more fatal effect on the colonial cattle, three of the heifers dying shortly after we left the Cape. It was our intention to make the island of St. Paul's, in order to verify our chronometers *, which were at this period * The chronometers on board were constructed by Mr. Mudge, N° 8, and N° 12. The rate given in England continued without variation to Tristan d'Acunha, but in the run from thence to the Cape we found an error of half a degree of longitude, that is, a loss of two minutes of time. On the 29th of August, N° 8 stopped without any apparent cause, and the next day resumed its going; this prevented any dependence being placed on it for the rest of the passage. passage. At Port Philip and Port Jackson, the rates were again ascertained by daily observations, and they continued to agree, until a few days after leaving Port Jackson, when N° 8 again stopped. N° 12 agreed perfectly with the landfall of Cape Horn, but on our arrival at Rio Janeiro we found period no less than six degrees a-head of the reckoning, but night having overtaken us, and the wind blowing fresh and fair, we ran past them in the dark; our vicinity was, however, evinced in the morning, by large patches of rock-weed, the leaves of which were very broad, and resembled in shape those of the sycamore*. From found an error of 75 miles of longitude to the westward; being a loss of five minutes of time from Port Jackson to Rio, for the given longitude of Cape Horn could not be depended on. * The confounding the names of the islands of St. Paul and Amsterdam, which has been the case since Capt. Cook's voyage, as well as the uncertainty of their relative situations, must cause some uneasiness to the navigator in passing them of a bad night. A Dutch Captain at the Cape asserted, that they were only twelve miles distant north and south of each other (but I presume he must have meant Dutch miles, equal to English leagues). |