When At Sixty Leagues From The Land, The Winds Still
Continued Variable, But At Between Seventy And Eighty, They Settled At
E.N.E. And N.E. At Which Distance We Continued Till In Lat.
20 deg.
N. not
being sensible of any currents in all that distance, and being also
entirely out of the way of the frightful ripplings and overfalls of
water which we used frequently to meet with nearer the land. These used
often to alarm us when becalmed in deep water, hearing a noise as of the
fall of water in passing through a bridge, a considerable time before it
came up to us, and which afterwards passed us at a very great rate. All
the effect this had on the ship, was to make her answer the helm wildly,
if we had any wind; and when we happened to meet any of these moving
waters very near the shore, we could not perceive that we either gained
or lost ground, though we sometimes continued in them for a quarter of
an hour. I have seen these overfalls to come both from the eastward and
the westward. By getting well out to sea, we not only got clear of these
inconveniences, but also were out of the way of the vandevals, or
black season, which had already begun on the coast; for at Cano, and in
going there, we felt very hard gusts, with black rolling water, frequent
and violent thunder and lightning, and heavy showers of rain.
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