Page:Early voyages to Terra Australis.djvu/293

 dampier's voyages. 137

upper deck-ports ; and with it a scuttle or cuttle-fish was cast upon the carriage of a gun.

The wind blew extraordinary hard all Wednesday, the 7th of June, but abated of its fierceness before night ; yet it continued a brisk gale till about the 16th, and still a moderate one till the 19th day; by which time we had run about six hundred leagues : for the most part of which time the wind was in some point of the west, namely, from the W.NAV. to the S. by W. It blew hardest when at W., or between the W. and S.AV., but after it veered more southerly the foul weather broke up. This I observed at other times also in these seas, that when the storms at west veered to the southward they grew less ; and that when the wind came to the east of the south we had still smaller srales, calms, and fair weather. As for the westerly winds on that side the Cape, we like them never the worse for being vio- lent, for they drive us the faster to the eastward ; and are therefore the only winds coveted by those who sail towards such parts of the East Indies as lye south of the equator, as Timor, Java, and Sumatra ; and by the ships bound for China, or any other that are to pass through the Streights of Sundy. Those ships having once jiassed the Cape, keep commonly pretty far southerly, on purpose to meet with those west winds, which in the winter season of these cli- mates they soon meet with ; for then the winds are generally westerly at the Cape, and especially to the southward of it : but in their summer months they get to the southward of 40 degrees, usually ere they meet with the westerly winds. I was not at this time in a higher latitude than 36 degrees, 40 minutes, and oftentimes was more northerly, altering my latitude often as winds and weather required ; for in such long runs 'tis best to shape one's course according to the winds. And if, in steering to the east, we should be obliged to bear a little to the jS[. or S. of it, 'tis no great matter ; for 'tis but sailing two or three points from the wind, when 'tis

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