Having thus escaped from imminent peril, Pizarro continued his voyage for Europe, and arrived safely on the coast of Gallicia in the beginning of the year 1746, after an absence of between four and five years, and having, by attendance on our expedition, diminished the royal power of Spain by above three thousand of their prime sailors, and by four considerable ships of war and a patache. For we have seen that the Hermione foundered at sea, the Guipuscoa was stranded and destroyed on the coast of Brazil, the St Estevan was condemned and broken up in the Rio Plata, and the Esperanza, being left in the South Sea, is doubtless by this time incapable of returning to Spain: So that the Asia alone, with less than an hundred hands, may be considered as all that remains of the squadron with which Pizarro put forth to sea; and whoever considers the very large proportion which this squadron bore to the whole navy of Spain, will no doubt confess that, even if our undertaking had been attended with no other advantages, than that of ruining so great a part of the naval force of so dangerous an enemy, this alone would be a sufficient equivalent for our equipment, and an incontestable proof of the service which the nation has thence received. Having thus given a summary of Pizarro's adventures, I return to the narrative of our own transactions.
I have already mentioned that we weighed from Madeira on the 3d November, after orders being given to rendezvous at St Jago, one of the Cape Verd islands, in case of a separation. But next day, when we were got to sea, the commodore, considering that the season was far advanced, and that touching at St Jago would create additional delay, thought proper for this reason to alter the rendezvous, and appointed the island of St Catharines, on the coast of Brazil, to be the first place to which the ships of the squadron were to repair, in case of separation.
In our passage to the island of St Catharines, we found the direction of the trade winds to differ considerably from what we had reason to expect, both from the general histories given of these winds, and the experience of former navigators. For the learned Dr Halley, in his account of the trade-winds which prevail in the Ethiopic and Atlantic Oceans, tells us that, from the lat. of 28° N. to 10° N. there is generally a fresh gale of N.E. wind, which, towards the African coasts, rarely comes to the eastward of E.N.E. or passes to the northward of N.N.E. but on the American side the wind is somewhat more easterly; though even there it is commonly a point or two to the northward of east; that from 10° N. to 4° N. the calms and tornadoes take place; and from 4° N. to 30° S. the winds are generally and perpetually between the south and east. We expected to find this account of the matter confirmed by our experience; but we found considerable variations from it, both in regard to the steadiness of the winds, and the quarters from whence they blew. For though we met with a N.E. wind about lat. 28° N. yet, from lat. 25° N. to 18° N the wind was never once to the northward of E. but almost constantly to the southward of it. From thence, however, to 6° 20' N. we had it usually to the northward of E. though not always, as it changed for a short time to E.S.E. From 6° 20' N. to about 4° 46' N. the weather was very unsettled, the wind being sometimes N.E. then changing to S.E. and sometimes we had a dead calm, with small rain and lightning. After this, to the lat. of 7° 30' S. the wind continued almost invariably between S. and E. and then again as invariably between N. and E. till we came to 15° 30' S. then E. and S.E. to 21° 37' S. After this, even to 27° 44' S. the wind was never once between S. and E. though we had it in all the other quarters of the compass; though this last circumstance may be in some measure accounted for from our approach to the coast of Brazil.