ns
plusieurs endroits." _Voyage aux Indes_, tom. ii. p. 91.

Mr Sonnerat tells us, that Mr Gordon, commander of the troops at the
Cape, had lately made three journies up the country, from which, when he
publishes his journal, we may expect much curious information.--D.]

"In the morning of the 20th we set out from the Pearl; and going a
different road from that by which we came, passed through a country
wholly uncultivated, till we got to the Tiger hills, when some tolerable
corn-fields appeared. At noon we stopped in a hollow for refreshment,
but, in walking about here, were plagued with a vast number of
musquitoes or sand-flies, which were the first I saw in the country. In
the afternoon we set out again, and in the evening arrived at the Cape
Town, tired with the jolting waggon."

On the 23d we got on board the observatory, clock, &c. By a mean of the
several results of the equal altitudes of the sun, taken with the
astronomical quadrant, the astronomical clock was found to lose on
sidereal time, 1' 8",368 each day. The pendulum was kept at the same
length as at Greenwich, where the daily loss of the clock on sidereal
time was 4".

The watch, by the mean of the results of fifteen days observations, was
found to be losing 2",261, on mean time, each day, which is 1",052 more
than at Greenwich; and on the 21st, at noon, she was too slow for mean
time by 1'h 20' 57",66. From this 6' 48",956 is to be subtracted, for
what she was too slow on the 11th of June at Greenwich, and her daily
rate since; and the remainder, viz. 1 deg. 14' 8",704, or 18 deg. 32' 10", will
be the longitude of the Cape Town by the watch. Its true longitude, as
found by Messrs Masson and Dixon, is 18 deg. 23' 15". As our observations
were made about half a mile to the E. of theirs, the error of the watch
in longitude is no more than 8' 25". Hence we have reason to conclude,
that she had gone well all the way from England, and that the longitude,
thus given, may be nearer the truth than any other.

If this be admitted, it will, in a great measure, enable me to find the
direction and strength of the currents we met with on this passage from
England. For, by comparing the latitude and longitude by dead reckoning
with those by observation and the watch, we shall, from time to time,
have, very accurately, the error of the ship's reckoning, be the cause
what it will. But as all imaginable care was taken in heaving, and
keeping the log, and every neces