N.W. by N., at which time our latitude was 20° 23', and our longitude 180°
40'. During the continuance of the light winds, which prevailed almost
constantly ever since our departure from the Sandwich Islands, the weather
was very close, and the air hot and sultry; the thermometer being generally
at 80°, and sometimes at 83°. All this time we had a considerable swell
from the N.E.; and in no period of the voyage did the ships roll and strain
so violently.

In the morning of the 1st of April, the wind changed from the S.E. to the
N.E. by E., and blew a fresh breeze till the morning of the 4th, when it
altered two points more to the E., and by noon increased to a strong gale,
which lasted till the afternoon of the 5th, attended with hazy weather. It
then again altered its direction to the S.E., became more moderate, and was
accompanied by heavy showers of rain. During all this time, we kept
steering to the N.W. against a slow, but regular current from that quarter,
which caused a constant variation from our reckoning by the log, of fifteen
miles a day. On the 4th, being then in the latitude 26° 17', and longitude
173° 30', we passed prodigious quantities of what sailors call Portuguese
men-of-war (_holothuria physalis_), and were also accompanied with a great
number of sea-birds, amongst which we observed, for the first time, the
albatross and sheerwater.

On the 6th, at noon, we lost the trade-wind, and were suddenly taken aback,
with the wind from the N.N.W. At this time our latitude was 29° 50', and
our longitude 170° l'. As the old running ropes were constantly breaking in
the late gales, we reeved what new ones we had left, and made such other
preparations as were necessary for the very different climate with which we
were now shortly to encounter. The fine weather we met with between the
tropics had not been idly spent. The carpenters found sufficient employment
in repairing the boats. The best bower-cable had been so much damaged by