Page 287

An.1686

The Table explained.

Now the Island Guam bore N. N. E. 8 leagues dist. this gives 22 m. to my Lat. and takes 9 from my Meridian dist. so that the Island is in Lat. 13:21 ; and the Merid. dist. from Cape Corrientes 7302 miles ; which reduced into degrees makes 125 d. 11 m.

The Table consists of 7 Columns. The first is of the days of the month. The 2d Column con- tains each days course, or the Point of the Compass we ran upon. The 3d gives the distance or length of such course in Italian or Geometrical miles, (at the rate of 60 to a degree,) or the progress the Ship makes every day ; and is reckoned always from noon to noon. But because the course is not al- ways made upon the same Rumb in a direct line, therefore the 4th and 5th Columns shew how ma- ny miles we ran to the South every day, and how many to the West, which last was our main run in this Voyage. By the 17th of April we were got pretty near into the latitude of Guam, and our course then lying along that parallel, our Northing and Southing confequently were but little, accord- ing as the Ship deviated from its direct course ; and such deviation is thenceforward exprest by N. or S. in the 5th Column, and the Ships keeping straight on the West Rumb, by o, that is to say, no Nor- thing or Southing. The 6th Columns shews the lat. we were in every day, where R. signifies the dead Reckoning, by the running of the Logs, and Ob. shews the lat. by observation. The 7th Column shews the Wind and Weather.

To these I would have added an 8th Column, to shew the Variation of the Needle ; but as it was very small in this course, so neither did we make any ob- servation of it, above once, after we were set out from the Mexican Coast. At our departure from Cape Corrientes, we found it to be 4 d. 28 m. Easterly ; and the observation we made of it afterwards, when we had gone about a third of the Voyage, shewed