new stock of provisions, he was thence, without delay, to make the best of his way to England. And as it was found impossible as yet to unload our victualler, the _Anna_ pink, the commodore gave the master of her the same rendezvous, and the same orders to put himself under the command of the remaining senior officer. Under these orders the squadron sailed from St. Catherine's on Sunday the 18th of January, as hath been already mentioned in the preceding chapter. The next day we had very squally weather, attended with rain, lightning, and thunder, but it soon became fair again with light breezes, and continued thus till Wednesday evening, when it blew fresh again; and increasing all night, by eight the next morning it became a most violent storm, and we had with it so thick a fog, that it was impossible to see the distance of two ships' length, so that the whole squadron disappeared. On this a signal was made, by firing guns, to bring to with the larboard tacks, the wind being then due east. We ourselves immediately handed the top-sails, bunted the main-sail, and lay to under a reefed mizen till noon, when the fog dispersed, and we soon discovered all the ships of the squadron, except the _Pearl_, who did not join us till near a month afterwards. Indeed the _Tryal_ sloop was a great way to the leeward, having lost her main-mast in the squall, and having been {63} obliged, for fear of bilging, to cut away the raft. We therefore bore down with the squadron to her relief, and the _Gloucester_ was ordered to take her in tow, for the weather did not entirely abate till the day after, and even then a great swell continued from the eastward in consequence of the preceding storm. After this accident we stood to the southward with little interruption, and here we experienced the same setting of the current which we had observed before our arrival at St. Catherine's; that is, we generally found ourselves to the southward of our reckoning by about twenty miles each day. This deviation, with a little inequality, lasted till we had passed the latitude of the river of Plate; and even then we discovered that the same current, however difficult to be accounted for, did yet undoubtedly take place; for we were not satisfied in deducing it from the error in our reckoning, but we actually tried it more than once when a calm made it practicable.