At nine o’clock in the morning of the 13th, we arrived before Port Praya, in the island of St Jago, where we saw two Dutch East India ships, and a small brigantine, at anchor.  As the Discovery was not there, and we had expended but little water in our passage from Teneriffe, I did not think proper to go in, but stood to the southward.  Some altitudes of the sun were now taken, to ascertain the true time.  The longitude by the watch, deduced therefrom, was 23 deg. 48’ west; the little island in the bay bore W.N.W., distant near three miles, which will make its longitude 23 deg. 51’.  The same watch, on my late voyage, made the longitude to be 23 deg. 30’ W.; and we observed the latitude to be 14 deg. 53’ 30” N.

The day after we left the Cape de Verde islands, we lost the N.E. trade wind; but did not get that which blows from the S.E. till the 30th, when we were in the latitude of 2 deg. north, and in the twenty-fifth degree of west longitude.

During this interval,[82] the wind was mostly in the S.W. quarter.  Sometimes it blew fresh, and in squalls; but for the most part a gentle breeze.  The calms were few, and of short duration.  Between the latitude of 12 deg. and of 7 deg.  N., the weather was generally dark and gloomy, with frequent rains, which enabled us to save as much water as filled most of our empty casks.

[Footnote 82:  On the 18th, I sunk a bucket with a thermometer seventy fathoms below the surface of the sea, where it remained two minutes; and it took three minutes more to haul it up.  The mercury in the thermometer was at 66, which before, in the air, stood at 78, and in the surface of the sea at 79.  The water which came up in the bucket, contained, by Mr Cavendish’s table, 1/25, 7 part salt; and that at the surface of the sea 1/29, 4.  As this last was taken up after a smart shower of rain, it might be lighter on that account.—­Captain Cook’s log-book.]

These rains, and the close sultry weather accompanying them, too often bring on sickness in this passage.  Every bad consequence, at least, is to be apprehended from them; and commanders of ships cannot be too much upon their guard, by purifying the air between decks with fires and smoke, and by obliging the people to dry their clothes at every opportunity.  These precautions were constantly observed on board the Resolution[83] and Discovery; and we certainly profited by them, for we had now fewer sick than on either of my former voyages.  We had, however, the mortification to find our ship exceedingly leaky in all her upper works.  The hot and sultry weather we had just passed through, had opened her seams, which had been badly caulked at first, so wide, that they admitted the rain-water through as it fell.  There was hardly a man that could lie dry in his bed; and the officers in the gun-room were all driven out of their cabins, by the water that came through the sides.  The sails in the sail-room got wet; and before we had weather