September 9.On the ninth of September, in Latitude 17° 16′, and. Longitude 102° 32′, we met with as irregular a ſwell as I ever ſaw, off Cape Horn, accompanied with very changeable weather, faint lightning round the compaſs, frequent ſhowers of rain, and light variable winds, blowing North Weſt by Weſt, round the compaſs, to Eaſt South Eaſt, and continually ſhifting till the 17.17th of September, at midnight; when, in a heavy ſquall of wind from the North Weſt by Weſt, there fell as great a torrent of rain, as I had ſeen, with tremendous thunder and lightning, which I concluded was the forerunner of the equinoctial gale: on the 17th at noon, our Latitude was 18° 27′ North, Longitude, 109° 0′ Weſt; thermometer 30°, barometer 29 6 4; at this time blowing a ſtrong breeze, and unſettled weather, which, by the 18.eighteenth, at noon, had increaſed to a perfect ſtorm, from the Weſt North Weſt, with a very heavy ſea that we could ſhew little or no ſail, till eight o'clock the ſame evening; when the weather moderated, thunder, lightning, and rain ceaſed, and the wind ſettled in the Weſtern quarter.
20.At daybreak, on the twentieth, we ſaw the Iſland of Socoro: a number of thoſe birds that generally follow