that, although carrying a heavy press of sail, we could not get them to go more than eight knots. We saw no birds during the day, a circumstance to us of unusual occurrence, but which reminded us of the low latitude in which we were sailing. Towards evening, the wind veered to the northward, and throughout the day we had several heavy showers of rain.
During the night we were obliged to reduce our sail to topsails and foresail, to enable the Terror to close, which she had hardly accomplished by day-light, when all sail was again made, the wind Aug. 7.having backed from the N.W. to the S.W. At noon, we had run one hundred and sixty miles during the last twenty-four hours, and had been carried ten miles to the southward by the current. The change of wind had produced an awkward cross sea, which, together with frequent sharp squalls, occasioned us the loss of a few studding-sail booms; but this was of no consequence, as we were going to a country where the finest spars in the world for the purpose could be obtained without trouble or expense; but we were much surprised to experience such heavy squalls at so great a distance from any land.
Aug. 8.At noon we were in lat. 33º 27′ S., and long. 160º 43′ E., having run a distance of one hundred and sixty-three miles. We found the current today had carried us ten miles to the northward, so that it would appear that the breadth of the belt of warm water which runs along the eastern coast of