The Soundings In The Latitude Of 26 Degrees South, From About
Eight Or Nine Leagues Off Till You Come Within
A league of the
shore, are generally about forty fathoms, differing but little,
seldom above three or four fathoms; but
The lead brings up very
different sorts of sand, some coarse, some fine, and of several
colours, as yellow, white, grey, brown, bluish, and reddish.
When I saw there was no harbour here, nor good anchoring, I stood
off to sea again in the evening of the 2nd of August, fearing a
storm on a lee-shore, in a place where there was no shelter, and
desiring at least to have sea-room, for the clouds began to grow
thick in the western-board, and the wind was already there and began
to blow fresh almost upon the shore, which at this place lies along
north-north-west and south-south-east. By nine o'clock at night we
got a pretty good offing, but the wind still increasing, I took in
my main-top-sail, being able to carry no more sail than two courses
and the mizen. At two in the morning, August 3rd, it blew very
hard, and the sea was much raised, so that I furled all my sails but
my mainsail, though the wind blew so hard, we had pretty clear
weather till noon, but then the whole sky was blackened with thick
clouds, and we had some rain, which would last a quarter of an hour
at a time, and then it would blow very fierce while the squalls of
rain were over our heads, but as soon as they were gone the wind was
by much abated, the stress of the storm being over; we sounded
several times, but had no ground till eight o'clock, August the 4th,
in the evening, and then had sixty fathom water, coral ground.
Enter page number
PreviousNext
Page 92 of 180
Words from 26029 to 26343
of 50938
