E., magnetic, was 31 deg. 47';
but the true variation, or such as would have been obtained with the head
at north, or south, I consider to have been 29 deg. 22' west.

Throughout the passage to the island Amsterdam, we were accompanied by
some, or all of the oceanic birds usually found in these latitudes; but
not in the numbers I had been accustomed to see them further south. The
spouting of a whale was occasionally perceived, and became more frequent
on approaching the island; the number of small blue petrels was also
increased, and a few Cape hens then made their appearance.

TUESDAY 24 NOVEMBER 1801

At five in the evening of the 24th, the mean variation from three
compasses on the binnacle, was observed to be 23 deg. 7' west, with the
ship's head E. S. E., or 20 deg. 4' true. Our latitude was then 38 deg. 20'
south, longitude 76 deg. 26' east; and at eleven at night, having nearly
reached the longitude of Amsterdam, whose situation I wished to compare
with the time keepers, we hove to, in a parallel between it and the
island St. Paul. At five next morning [WEDNESDAY 25 NOVEMBER 1801], we
steered southward to make Amsterdam; but having reached its latitude, and
no land being visible, our eastwardly course was resumed. The weather was
thick, so that objects could not be distinguished beyond five or six
miles; and at noon the ship was found to have been set 23' of longitude
to the east of what the log gave. From these joint causes it must have
been that Amsterdam was not perceived, if its situation of 38 deg. 43' south
and 77 deg. 40' east, as made in His Majesty's ship Providence, in 1792, were
rightly ascertained.

In passages like this, when fortunately made, it is seldom that any
circumstance occurs, of sufficient interest to be related. Our
employments were to clean, dry, and air the ship below; and the seamen's
clothes and bedding, with the sails, upon deck. These, with the exercise
of the great guns and small arms, were our principal employments in fine
weather; and when otherwise, we were wet and uncomfortable, and could do
little. It was a great satisfaction that frequent pumping of the ship was
not now required, the greatest quantity of water admitted during this
passage being less than two inches an hour. The antiseptics issued were
sour krout and vinegar, to the extent of the applications for them; and
at half an hour before noon every day, a pint of strong wort, made by
pouring boiling water upon the e