While we lay in the road, a sloop of about seventy tons burthen came to an anchor by us.  She belonged to New York, which place she left in February, and having been to the coast of Guinea with a cargo of goods, was come here to take in turtle to carry to Barbadoes.  This was the story which the master, whose name was Greves, was pleased to tell, and which may, in part, be true.  But I believe the chief view of his coming here, was the expectation of meeting with some of the India ships.  He had been in the island near a week, and had got on board twenty turtle.  A sloop, belonging to Bermuda, had sailed but a few days before with one hundred and five on board, which was as many as she could take in; but having turned several more on the different sandy beaches, they had ripped open their bellies, taken out the eggs, and left their carcasses to putrify; an act as inhuman as injurious to those who came after them.  Part of the account I have given of the interior parts of this island I received from Captain Greves, who seemed to be a sensible intelligent man, and had been all over it.  He sailed in the morning of the same day we did.

Turtle, I am told, are to be found at this isle from January to June.  The method of catching them is to have people upon the several sandy bays, to watch their coming on shore to lay their eggs, which is always in the night, and then to turn them on their backs, till there be an opportunity to take them off the next day.  It was recommended to us to send a good many men to each beach, where they were to lie quiet till the turtle were ashore, and then rise and turn them at once.  This method may be the best when the turtle are numerous; but when there are but few, three or four men are sufficient for the largest beach; and if they keep patroling it, close to the wash of the surf, during the night, by this method they will see all that come ashore, and cause less noise than if there were more of them.  It was by this method we caught the most we got; and this is the method by which the Americans take them.  Nothing is more certain, than that all the turtle which are found about this island, come here for the sole purpose of laying their eggs; for we met with none but females; and of all those which we caught, not one had any food worth mentioning in its stomach; a sure sign, in my opinion, that they must have been a long time without any; and this may be the reason why the flesh of them is not so good as some I have eat on the coast of New South Wales, which were caught on the spot where they fed.

The watch made 8 deg. 45’ difference of longitude between St Helena and Ascension; which, added to 5 deg. 49’ the longitude of James Fort in St Helena, gives 14 deg. 34’ for the longitude of the Road of Ascension, or 14 deg. 30’ for the middle of the island, the latitude of which is 8 deg.  S. The lunar observations made by Mr Wales, and reduced to the same point of the island by the watch, gave 14 deg. 28’ 30” west longitude.