We ran all night towards the south-south-west having the wind at south-east.  The next morning we could see nothing of the land.  I now made the ship’s company acquainted with the intent of the voyage and, having been permitted to hold out this encouragement to them, I gave assurances of the certainty of promotion to everyone whose endeavours should merit it.

The winds for some days after leaving Tenerife were mostly from the southward.  Fishing-lines and tackle were distributed amongst the people and some dolphins were caught.

Thursday 17.

On the 17th the wind came round to the north-east and continued steady in that quarter till the 25th on which day at noon we were in 3 degrees 54 minutes north.  As the cloudiness of the sky gave us reason to expect much rain we prepared the awnings with hoses for the convenience of saving water, in which we were not disappointed.  From this time to our meeting with the south-east tradewind we had much wet weather, the air close and sultry with calms, and light variable winds generally from the southward.

Tuesday 29.

On the 29th there was so heavy a fall of rain that we caught seven hundred gallons of water.

Thursday 31.

On the 31st, latitude at noon 2 degrees 5 minutes north, found a current setting to the north-east at the rate of fourteen miles in the twenty-four hours.  The thermometer was at 82 degrees in the shade, and 81 1/2 degrees at the surface of the sea, so that the air and the water were within half a degree of the same temperature.  At eight o’clock in the evening we observed a violent rippling in the sea about half a mile to the north-west of us which had very much the appearance of breakers.  This I imagine to have been occasioned by a large school (or multitude) of fish as it was exactly in the track the ship had passed, so that if any real shoal had been there we must have seen it at the close of the evening when a careful lookout was always kept.  However if it had appeared ahead of us instead of astern I should certainly have tacked to avoid it.  To such appearances I attribute the accounts of many shoals within the tropics which cannot be found anywhere but in maps.  Our latitude at this time was 2 degrees 8 minutes north and longitude 19 degrees 43 minutes west.  The next day we had more of these appearances from the number of schools of fish by which the ship was surrounded.

February.  Saturday 2.

This morning we saw a sail to the north-north-west but at too great a distance to distinguish what she was.

Monday 4.

Had very heavy rain during which we nearly filled all our empty water casks.  So much wet weather, with the closeness of the air, covered everything with mildew.  The ship was aired below with fires and frequently sprinkled with vinegar; and every little interval of dry weather was taken advantage of to open all the hatchways, and clean the ship, and to have all the people’s wet things washed and dried.