[Footnote 70: Formerly, there was made at Teneriffe a great quantity of Canary sack, which the French call _Vin de Malvesie_; and we, corruptly after them, name Malmsey (from Malvesia, a town in the Morea, famous for such luscious wine). In the last century, and still later, much of this was imported into England; but little wine is now made there, but of the sort described by Captain Cook. Not more than fifty pipes of the rich Canary were annually made in Glas's time; and he says, they now gather the grapes when green, and make a dry hard wine of them, fit for hot climates, p. 262.--D.] The Chevalier De Borda, commander of the French frigate now lying in Santa Cruz road, was employed, in conjunction with Mr Varila, a Spanish gentleman, in making astronomical observations for ascertaining the going of two time-keepers which they had on board their ship. For this purpose, they had a tent pitched on the pier head, where they made their observations, and compared their watches, every day at noon, with the clock on shore, by signals. These signals the chevalier very obligingly communicated to us; so that we could compare our watch at the same time. But our stay was too short, to profit much by his kindness. The three days comparisons which we made, assured us that the watch had not materially, if at all, altered her rate of going; and gave us the same longitude, within a very few seconds, that was obtained by finding the time from observations of the sun's altitude from the horizon of the sea. The watch, from a mean of these observations, on the 1st, 2d, and 3d of August, made the longitude 16° 31' W.; and, in like manner, the latitude was found to be 28° 30' 11" N. Mr Varila informed us, that the true longitude was 18° 35' 30", from Paris, which is only 16° 16' 30" from Greenwich; less than what our watch gave by 14' 30". But, far from looking upon this as an error in the watch, I rather think it a confirmation of its having gone well; and that the longitude by it may be nearer the truth than any other. It is farther confirmed by the lunar observations that we made in the road, which gave 16° 37' 10". Those made before we arrived, and reduced to the road by the watch, gave 16° 33' 30"; and those made after we left it, and reduced back in the same manner, gave 16° 28'. The mean of the three is 16° 30' 40".