The variation of the compass off the west coast of Java is about 3° W., and so it continued without any sensible variation, in the common track of ships to the longitude of 288° W., latitude 22° S., after which it increased apace, so that in longitude 295°, latitude 23°, the variation was 10° 20ʹ W.: in seven degrees more of longitude, and one of latitude, it increased two degrees; in the same space farther to the west, it increased five degrees: in latitude 28°, longitude 314°, it was 24° 20ʹ; in latitude 29°, longitude 317°, it was 26° 10ʹ; and was then stationary for the space of about ten degrees farther to the west; but in latitude 34°, longitude 333°, we observed it twice to be 28-¼° W., and this was its greatest variation, for in latitude 35-½°, longitude 337°, it was 24°, and continued gradually to decrease; so that off Cape Anguillas, it was 22° 30ʹ, and in Table Bay 20° 30ʹ W. As to currents it did not appear that they were at all considerable, till we came within a little distance of the meridian of Madagascar; for, after we had made 52° of longitude from Java Head, we found, by observation, that our error in longitude was only two degrees, and it was the same when we had made only nineteen. This error might be owing partly to a current setting to the westward, partly to our not making proper allowances for the setting of the sea before which we run, and perhaps to an error in the assumed longitude of Java Head. If that longitude is erroneous, the error must be imputed to the imperfection of the charts of which I made use in reducing the longitude from Batavia to that place, for there can be no doubt but that the longitude of Batavia is well determined. After we had passed the longitude of 307°, the effects of the westerly currents began to be considerable; for in three days, our error in longitude was 1° 5ʹ: the velocity of the current kept increasing, as we proceeded to the westward, in so much that, for five days successively after we made the land, we were driven to the S. W. or S. W. by W., not less than twenty leagues a day; and this continued till we were within sixty or seventy leagues of the Cape, where the current set sometimes one way, and sometimes the other, though inclining rather to the westward.