On the 13th, in latitude 4 deg. 44’ south and longitude 23 deg. 17’ west, a swallow, a gannet, and two sheerwaters were seen; and from six to eight in the evening, the officer of the watch and myself thought the water to be much smoother than before, or than it was afterward.  Had it been in an unknown sea, I should have been persuaded that some island, or shoal, lay at no great distance to the south-eastward of our situation at that time.

SUNDAY 20 SEPTEMBER 1801

The trade wind continued, with some little variety in its direction, to blow fresh until the 20th, when it became light, and sometimes calm.  We were then approaching the small island Trinidad.  Many gannets were seen at twenty-four leagues off, but none at a greater distance.  On the 23rd [WEDNESDAY], the island was in sight; and at noon, when our latitude was 20 deg. 1’ south, and longitude 29 deg. 13’ west, a peaked hummock near the eastern extremity bore S. 25 deg.  W., nine or ten leagues.  The western extremity bore S. 29 deg.  W., and at first appeared to be a bluff head; but it afterwards assumed the form of a conical rock, and was, in all probability, the Nine Pin of captain D’Auvergne’s chart.  One of the rocks called Martin Vas, was visible from the main top, and angled 49 deg. 43’ to the left of the peaked hummock; its bearing was consequently very near S. 25 deg.  E.

Mons. de la Perouse, who sent a boat on shore to Trinidad, lays down the latitude of the south-east point at 20 deg. 31’ south, and longitude from lunar observations, 28 deg. 37’ west of Greenwich.  The latitude appeared to agree with our observations; but in the longitude there is some difference.  According to Earnshaw’s two time keepers, No. 465 and 543, which kept better rates than the remaining four, the longitude of the Nine Pin is 29 deg. 251/2’ west; which being reduced to the south-east point, will place it in 29 deg. 23’, or 46’ west of the French navigator.* The longitude in captain D’Auvergne’s plan of Trinidad, constructed 1782, is 29 deg. 55’, or 32’ still further west.  From two sets of distances of the star Altair to the west, and two of Aldebaran east of the moon, I made the longitude of the south-east point to be 29 deg. 19’ west; the difference from the time keepers, which I consider to have given the best longitude, being no more than 4’.

[* The error of No. 465 was found, at the Cape of Good Hope, to be 10’ 57”, 2 to the east, and of No. 543, to be 39’ 21”, 5 east, contracted in 96 days upon their English rates.  To obtain the above longitude, a proportional part of these errors according to the number of days, has been applied to the keepers; and the difference between them is then no more than 2".]

THURSDAY 24 SEPTEMBER 1801