The 30th we had
the winds from west to south-south-east, squalls and rain: and we saw
some dolphins and other fish about us. We were now out of sight of land
and had been so 4 or 5 days: but the winds now hanging in the south was
an apparent sign that we were still too nigh the shore to receive the
true general east trade; as the easterly winds we had before showed that
we were too far off the land to have the benefit of the coasting south
trade: and the faintness of both these winds, and their often shifting
from the south-south-west to the south-east with squalls, rain and small
gales, were a confirmation of our being between the verge of the south
coasting trade and that of the true trade; which is here regularly
south-east.
The 3rd of May, being in latitude 20 degrees 00 minutes and meridian
distance west from Cape Salvador 234 miles, the variation was 7 degrees
00 minutes. We saw no fowl but shearwaters, as our seamen call them,
being a small black fowl that sweep the water as they fly, and are much
in the seas that lie without either of the tropics: they are not eaten.
We caught 3 small sharks, each 6 foot 4 inches long; and they were very
good food for us.
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