As At This Time They Had Not Found Out The
Method Of Running Away North To Meet The S.W. Winds.
Having made but little way and the ships being full of people, they began
by the twentieth of May
To be much afflicted with scarcity of provisions,
insomuch that they were reduced to an allowance of six ounces of bread and
less than a pint of water for each person daily, and had no other article
of provision besides. Though there were eight or nine pilots in the two
ships, yet none of them knew whereabout they were, but the admiral was
confident that they were then only a little west of the Azores, whereof he
gives the following account in his journal.
"This morning the Dutch compasses varied as they used to do a whole point,
while those of Genoa, which used to agree with them, varied but a very
little, though afterwards sailing farther east they varied more, which is
a sign that we were 100 leagues west of the Azores or somewhat more; for
when we were just 100 leagues there were only a few scattered weeds to be
seen, the Dutch needles varying a point while those of Genoa pointed due
north; and when we got somewhat farther E.N.E. they altered again." This
idea was verified on the twenty-second of May, when by exact reckoning the
admiral found that he was 100 leagues to the west of the Azores. He was
much astonished at this singular difference between the two kinds of
compasses, which he was disposed to attribute to their having been made by
different kinds of loadstones; for until they had arrived at that
longitude they all varied a point from the true north, and some of them
continued to do so even there, while those constructed at Genoa, now
pointed due north, and the same remarkable discrepancy continued upon the
twenty-fourth of May.
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