ast of Brazil. Next day but one
we spoke a Portuguese brigantine from Rio Janeiro bound to _Bahia de
todos los Santos_, by which we learnt that we were thirty-four leagues
from Cape St Thomas, and forty from Cape Frio; which latter bore from
us W.S.W. By our own accounts we were nearly eight leagues from Cape
Frio; and though, on the information of this brig, we altered our
course, standing more southerly, yet, by our coming in with the land
afterwards, we were fully convinced that our own reckoning was more
correct than that of the Portuguese. After passing lat. 16 deg. S. we
found a considerable current setting to the southward. The same took
place all along the coast of Brazil, and even to the southward of the
Rio Plata, amounting sometimes to thirty miles in twenty-four hours,
and once to above forty miles. If, as is most probable, this current
be occasioned by the running off of the water which is accumulated on
the coast of Brazil by the constant sweeping of the eastern trade-wind
over the Ethiopic Ocean, it were then most natural to suppose that
its general course must be determined by the bearings of the adjacent
shores. Perhaps in every instance of currents the same may hold true,
as I believe there are no examples of any considerable currents at any
great distance from land. If this could be ascertained as a general
principle, it might be easy by their assistance and the observed
latitude, to correct the reckoning. But it were much to be wished, for
the general interests of navigation, that the actual settings of the
different currents in various parts of the world were examined
more frequently and more accurately than appears to have been done
hitherto.

[Footnote 1: In the map of the world by Arrowsmith, the Abrolhos are
made a cluster of islands off the coast of Brazil, in lat. 18 deg. 10' S.
long. 39 deg. W. from Greenwich.--E.]

We began now to grow impatient for a sight of land, both for the
recovery of our sick, and for the refreshment and security of those
who still continued in health. When we left. St Helens, we were in
so good a condition that we only lost two men in the Centurion in our
long run to Madeira. But in this run, from Madeira to St Catharines,
we were remarkably sickly, so that many died, and great numbers were
confined to their hammocks, both in our ship and the others, and
several of these past all hopes of recovery. The disorders they in
general laboured under were those common to h