We had a fresh gale from the north-east until we were in the latitude of 10 deg. 30' north; the north-east trade now became faint and variable, and in 9 deg. 30' north we had frequent calms, with dark cloudy weather, and heavy showers of rain; squalls were seen now rising from every part of the horizon, and appeared to threaten much wind, but they seldom contained any thing but torrents of rain; the breezes, which were very light, and were generally from the southward, very much retarded our progress towards the line. In latitude 8 deg. 30' north, the wind fixed in the south-west quarter (rather an extraordinary circumstance in these latitudes) and blew a fresh gale, with which we stood to the eastward; but as it was generally far southerly, we were soon in longitude 18 deg. 26' west, by the time-piece, on which we had more reliance than on the dead reckoning, for here we found a current setting considerably strong to the eastward; our lunar observations, which we never failed to make at every opportunity, constantly confirmed the truth of the watch. Finding no prospect of a change of wind by continuing to stand to the eastward, we tacked in the above longitude, and latitude 6 deg. 48' north, and stood to the westward; for the wind now appeared fixed between south-west and south, a steady gale with a large sea from the southward; many of the convoy sailed so heavy, and were so leewardly, that to gain ground thus circumstanced was impossible; we had therefore only to hope, that by standing off to a greater distance from the coast of Africa, we might find the wind incline to the eastward of south: we, therefore, kept working in this manner for twelve days, in the course of which time our dead reckonings were four deg. to the westward of the truth, occasioned by the the strong easterly currents; in the latitude of 4 deg. 30' north, and longitude, by the time-keeper, 19 deg. 40' west, the wind began to incline to the south-south-east, which gave us some reason to hope that the south-east trade wind was at no great distance.