1801.
July.
We continued our course for Madeira, with fair winds. Our latitude on the 30th,Thursday 30. was 30° 5′ north, longitude 15° 31′ west; and in the afternoon Porto Santo was seen, bearing west-north-west; the wind then became light and variable, and soon afterwards died away. The variation observed on the binnacle by the master, when the head was south-west-by-south, was 22° 45′, but on the booms 19° 51′; the true variation being as I believe, 20° 51′ west.
It was calm on the 31st,Friday 31. and I had a boat lowered down and went round the ship with the carpenter, to inspect the seams near the water line; for we had the mortification to find the ship beginning to leak so soon as the channel was cleared, and in the three last days she had admitted three inches of water per hour. The seams appeared sufficiently bad, especially under the counter and at the butt ends, for the leak to be attributable to them; and as less water came in when the ship was upright than when heeling to a beam wind, I hoped the cause need not be sought lower down. Before hoisting up the boat, a small hawke's-bill turtle was picked up; and between this time and that of anchoring in Funchal Road, several others were seen, and a second, weighing about thirty pounds, was caught.
Aug. 1,August.Saturday 1. at noon, Porto Santo bore N. 11° W., and the rocky islands called Dezertas, from N. 65° to S. 85° W. distant three leagues. The south end of these islands lies, by our observations, in latitude 32° 24′ 20″ north, which differs less than one mile from its position in Mr. Johnston's chart of the Madeiras. There being little wind next morning,Sunday 2. I went off in one of the cutters, accompanied by Messieurs Brown and Bauer, the naturalist and natural-history painter, to the southernmost island, called Bujio, which was not far distant. On the way, I shot several birds of the puffin kind, one of which had a fathom of small brass wire attached to its wing. The distance of the land proved to be more considerable than was expected; and there being a current setting southward we did not reach the
