Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/133

 now out of sight of land and had been so 4 or 5 days: but the winds now hanging in the south was an apparent sign that we were still too nigh the shore to receive the true general east trade; as the easterly winds we had before showed that we were too far off the land to have the benefit of the coasting south trade: and the faintness of both these winds, and their often shifting from the south-south-west to the south-east with squalls, rain and small gales, were a confirmation of our being between the verge of the south coasting trade and that of the true trade; which is here regularly south-east.

The 3rd of May, being in latitude 20 degrees 00 minutes and meridian distance west from Cape Salvador 234 miles, the variation was 7 degrees 00 minutes. We saw no fowl but shearwaters, as our seamen call them, being a small black fowl that sweep the water as they fly, and are much in the seas that lie without either of the tropics: they are not eaten. We caught 3 small sharks, each 6 foot 4 inches long; and they were very good food for us. The next day we caught 3 more sharks of the same size, and we ate them also, esteeming them as good fish, boiled and pressed, and then stewed with vinegar and pepper.