OBSERVED IN THIS VOYAGE.

Two days before I made the Cape of Good Hope my variation was 7 degrees
58 minutes west. I was then in 43 degrees 27 minutes east longitude from
Cape Salvador, being in latitude 35 degrees 30 minutes, this was the
first of June. The second of June I saw a large black fowl, with a
whitish flat bill, fly by us; and took great notice of it, because in the
East India Waggoner, pilot-book, there is mention made of large fowls, as
big as ravens, with white flat bills and black feathers, that fly not
above 30 leagues from the Cape, and are looked on as a sign of one's
being near it. My reckoning made me then think myself above 90 leagues
from the Cape, according to the longitude which the Cape hath in the
common sea-charts: so that I was in some doubt whether these were the
right fowls spoken of in the Waggoner; or whether those fowls might not
fly farther off shore than is there mentioned; or whether, as it proved,
I might not be nearer the Cape than I reckoned myself to be; for I found,
soon after, that I was not then above 25 or 30 leagues at most from the
Cape. Whether the fault were in the charts laying down the Cape too much
to the east from Brazil, or were rather in our reckoning, I could not
tell: but our reckonings are liable to such uncertainties from steerage,
log, currents, half-minute-glasses; and sometimes want of care, as in so
long a run cause often a difference of many leagues in the whole account.

Most of my men that kept journals imputed it to the half-minute-glasses:
and indeed we had not a good glass in the ship beside the half-watch or
two-hour-glasses. As for our half-minute-glasses we tried them all at
several times, and we found those that we had used from Brazil as much
too short, as others we had used before were too long; which might well
make great errors in those several reckonings. A ship ought therefore to
have its glasses very exact; and besides, an extraordinary care ought to