Page:A voyage to Abyssinia (Salt).djvu/83

( 75 ) CHAPTER III.

AS the track from Mosambique to the Red Sea is little known, I have been induced to give a nautical journal of our passage as far as Aden, and particular care has been taken to mark the variation of the compass, (which was regularly observed whenever occasion offered,) on account of the existence of similar observations made on the same coast as early as the year 1620, in order that, from a comparison between the different remarks, the change that has taken place in the variation may be ascertained.

On the 16th of September, we sailed from Mosambique at day break, and stood out from the land until twelve o'clock, when we steered a regular course N. by E. with the intention of keeping in a direction parallel to the coast. At noon the latitude observed was 14° 30' S. the wind blowing fresh from the southward, with a heavy sea from the S.S.E. the variation 22° 20' W.

On September the 17th, we continued the same course; the weather remaining extremely mild, and the wind veering round a little to the eastward. In the course of the day we met with a strong current setting to the