e British Queen, Simon Paul,
master, from London, bound to the Cape of Good Hope on the whale-fishery.
She sailed from Falmouth the 5th of December, eighteen days before I left
Spithead. By this ship I wrote to England. At sunset she was almost out
of sight astern.

Monday 18.

In the course of this day's run the variation changed from west to east.
According to our observations the true and magnetic meridians coincided
in latitude 20 degrees 0 minutes south and longitude 31 degrees 15
minutes west. At noon we were in latitude 20 degrees 44 minutes south and
longitude 31 degrees 23 minutes west. In our advances towards the south
the wind had gradually veered round to the east and was at this time at
east-north-east. The weather after crossing the Line had been fine and
clear, but the air so sultry as to occasion great faintness, the
quicksilver in the thermometer in the daytime standing at between 81 and
83 degrees, and one time at 85 degrees. In our passage through the
northern tropic the air was temperate, the sun having then high south
declination and the weather being generally fine till we lost the
north-east tradewind; but such a thick haze surrounded the horizon that
no object could be seen except at a very small distance. The haze
commonly cleared away at sunset and gathered again at sunrise. Between
the north-east and south-east tradewinds the calms and rains, if of long
continuance, are very liable to produce sickness unless great attention
is paid to keeping the ship clean and wholesome by giving all the air
possible, drying between decks with fires, and drying and airing the
people's clothes and bedding. Besides these precautions we frequently
wetted with vinegar, and every evening the pumps were used as
ventilators. With these endeavours to secure health we passed the low
latitudes without a single complaint.

The currents we met with were by no means regular, nor have I ever found
them so in the middle of the ocean. However from the channel to the
southward as far as Madeira there is generally a current setting to the
south-south-east.

Thursday 21.

On the evening of the 21st a ship was seen in the north-east but at too
great a distance to distinguish of what country.

Friday 22.

The next day the wind came round to the north and north-west so that we
could no longer consider ourselves in the tradewind. Our latitude at noon
was 25 degrees 55 minutes south, longitude 36 degrees 29 minutes west.
V