t until we were in the
latitude of 10 deg. 30' north; the north-east trade now became
faint and variable, and in 9 deg. 30' north we had frequent
calms, with dark cloudy weather, and heavy showers of rain;
squalls were seen now rising from every part of the horizon, and
appeared to threaten much wind, but they seldom contained any
thing but torrents of rain; the breezes, which were very light,
and were generally from the southward, very much retarded our
progress towards the line. In latitude 8 deg. 30' north, the wind
fixed in the south-west quarter (rather an extraordinary
circumstance in these latitudes) and blew a fresh gale, with
which we stood to the eastward; but as it was generally far
southerly, we were soon in longitude 18 deg. 26' west, by the
time-piece, on which we had more reliance than on the dead
reckoning, for here we found a current setting considerably
strong to the eastward; our lunar observations, which we never
failed to make at every opportunity, constantly confirmed the
truth of the watch.

Finding no prospect of a change of wind by continuing to stand
to the eastward, we tacked in the above longitude, and latitude
6 deg. 48' north, and stood to the westward; for the wind now
appeared fixed between south-west and south, a steady gale with a
large sea from the southward; many of the convoy sailed so heavy,
and were so leewardly, that to gain ground thus circumstanced was
impossible; we had therefore only to hope, that by standing off
to a greater distance from the coast of Africa, we might find the
wind incline to the eastward of south: we, therefore, kept
working in this manner for twelve days, in the course of which
time our dead reckonings were four deg. to the westward of the
truth, occasioned by the the strong easterly currents; in the
latitude of 4 deg. 30' north, and longitude, by the time-keeper,
19 deg. 40' west, the wind began to incline to the
south-south-east, which gave us some reason to hope that the
south-east trade wind was at no great distance.

It continued wavering between the south by east and south-east
until we had got another degree to the southward, when it settled
at south-east a steady breeze; but the easterly current, which
would now have been an advantage to us by keeping the transports
to windward, had ceased, and we found a strong westerly one
running for several days, from 30 to 45 miles in 24 hours, by
which our account was brought back to its original agreemen