S. with 24 deg.
variation, being by our reckoning 650 leagues from Bantam, which we had
run in 24 days. The 29th, in lat. 32 deg. 30' S. and above 13 deg. variation, we
had all day a severe gale of wind, which at night became a storm at
W.S.W. from the northward,[182] and put us to try with our main course,
continuing all night and next day. In this, as sundry times before, we
found the report of Linschot to be true, that generally all easterly
winds, coming about to the northwards, if accompanied by rain, come
presently round to W.S.W. with considerable violence.
[Footnote 182: This expression is unintelligible; but from the sequel,
it appears the gale had been originally easterly, had then changed to
the north, and finally settled in a storm at W.S.W. - E.]
Early in the morning of the 8th December, 1609, we fell in with the
Terra de Natal, some six leagues west, being at noon in lat. 81 deg. 27'
S. with the variation about 8 deg. 30', we standing S.S.E. under low sails,
with the wind at S.W. We met a Hollander, from whom we learnt that the
Erasmus, a ship of the fleet which went home from Bantam at the time of
my arrival there in the Dragon, had sprung a leak at sea; and, being
left by the rest of the fleet, steered for the Mauritius, where she
unladed her goods, which were loft there with twenty-five persons till
they and the goods could be sent for, the rest of her company being in
this vessel.
