Page:Memoirs of a Trait in the Character of George III.djvu/261

204 which answered the purpose just as well as if it had been entirely correct. On the 27th of January, at five o'clock in the evening, I took the Watch on board the Merlin sloop of eighteen guns. Captain Bourke, who was under orders to sail express for England; and accordingly at five in the morning of the 28th, they weighed and sailed out of the harbour of Port Royal. [Here the writer notes in their order, the Islands of Navasa, Hispaniola, Cuba, Tortuga, Hencago, Achilles's Keys, Fortune and Crooked Island, and continues] In the evening, February 10th, we saw Bird Island; and from that time till the 24th of March we saw no land, nor did we expect to see any, and we then, according to my reckoning by the Watch, made the Lizard within ten miles of what I expected.—I have already observed to you, that the Watch made an error of two minutes and thirty-six seconds in going to Jamaica; which error I could easily account for, as it is not in so perfect a state as we could make it; but the Commissioners wanted to know