But The Currents Among These Islands Set So Strongly To The North And North-West, That He Was Unable To Keep His Intended Course, And Was Still In Sight Of Fogo, One Of The Cape Verde Islands, On The 7th Of July.

This island is very high land on the south side, and looks at a distance like a great church

With a steeple at the east end, which is an exceedingly high rock, whence there usually breaks out much fire before the east winds blow, in the same manner as is seen at Teneriffe, Vesuvius, and Etna. From this last country of the Christians he held on his course S.W. till he came into only 5 deg. of north latitude, where he was becalmed, having till then been continually attended by the before-mentioned fog. The calms lasted eight days, with such violent heat as almost to burn the ships, and it was impossible during all that time for any of the people to remain below deck, and had not the sun been clouded with occasional rains, the admiral thought they would have been burnt up alive together with their ships. On the first day of the calm, being fair, nothing could withstand the heat, had not GOD relieved them with the rain and fog. Having therefore got a little way to the northwards into seven degrees of latitude, he resolved not to hold any farther to the south, but to sail due west in that parallel, at least till he saw how the weather settled, because he had lost many casks in consequence of the hoops starting with the great heat, and the corn and all other provisions were scorched up.

About the middle of July, the admiral observed the latitude with great care, and found a wonderful difference between the appearances there and in the parallel of the Azores. For at the Azores, when the constellation of the great bear was to the right or east, then the north star is lowest, and from that time began to rise; so that when the great bear was over head, the north star had risen two degrees and a half, and being passed, that began again to descend the five degrees it had ascended. This he observed very carefully, several times when the weather was very fit for his purpose. But at the place where he now was in the torrid zone these appearances were quite contrary; for when the great bear was at its greatest elevation, he found the north star six degrees high; and when in six hours the bear came to the west the north star was then eleven degrees high; when the bear was quite depresssed and could not be seen because of the obliquity of the pole, the north star was six degrees high, so that the difference was ten degrees, and the north star described a circle having a diameter of ten degrees; whereas, in other places, it made but five, and in a different position as to the great bear, for at the Azores the polar star was lowest when the bear was in the west, and here the north star was lowest when the bear was at its greatest elevation.

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