He
Was Now Greatly Surprised To Notice At This Time That The Charles Wain
Or Ursa Major Constellation Appeared At Night In The West, And Was N.E. In
The Morning:
He thence concluded that their whole nights course was only
nine hours, or so many parts in twenty-four of a great circle; and this he
observed to be the case regularly every night.
It was likewise noticed
that the compass varied a whole point to the N.W. at night-fall, and came
due north every morning at day-break. As this unheard-of circumstance
confounded and perplexed the pilots, who apprehended danger in these
strange regions and at such unusual distance from home, the admiral
endeavoured to calm their fears by assigning a cause for this wonderful
phenomenon: He alleged that it was occasioned by the polar star making a
circuit round the pole, by which they were not a little satisfied.
Soon after sunrise on Monday the first of October, an alcatraz came to the
ship, and two more about ten in the morning, and long streams of weeds
floated from east to west. That morning the pilot of the admirals ship
said that they were now 578 leagues west from the island of Ferro. In his
public account the admiral said they were 584 leagues to the west; but in
his private journal he made the real distance 707 leagues, or 129 more
than was reckoned by the pilot. The other two ships differed much in their
computation from each other and from the admirals pilot.
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