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therefore judged it advisable to alter the plan of keeping within seven points of the wind, and to go with it upon the beam; and also to put in practice every means of lightening the upper works, for they seemed to be very inadequate to support the weight with which they had been unavoidably loaded. Two eighteen-pound carronades, stern chacers, were taken off the upper deck and struck into the hold; the spare rudder, and a variety of other things which a want of room had obliged us to stow in the main and mizen channels, were taken within board; and every exterior weight concentrated as much as possible. After this was done, the tremulous motion caused by every blow of the sea, exciting a sensation as if the timbers of the ship were elastic, was considerably diminished; and the quantity of water admitted by the leaks was also somewhat reduced.

On the 13th, in latitude 4° 44′ south and longitude 29° 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.

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, the island was in sight; and at noon, when our latitude was 20° 1′ south, and longitude 29° 19′ west, a peaked hummock near the eastern extremity bore S. 25° W., nine or ten leagues. The western extremity bore S. 29° 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° 43′ to the left of the peaked hummock; its bearing was consequently very near S. 25° E.

Mons. de la Pérouse, who sent a boat on shore to Trinidad, lays