hands and faces, and were obliged to use the sea
water which is far from being pleasant. Besides,
having had a considerable loss by the breakage of
ale and porter bottles, owing to their having been
put up when the liquor was new, the passengers
and officers of the ship were obliged to submit to
a certain allowance of these articles; and we now
began to be more frugal of our fresh provisions
than heretofore.

While our time was thus passing on in the gulf
stream, we were under some apprehensions of be-
ing carried out of our course by the current; and
the sea being often as smooth as a fish-pond, we
occasionally hoisted out the boat, and taking an
iron pot, let it down into the sea, by which means
the direction of the current was ascertained.
Some of us were at the trouble of sealing up a
bottle, inclosing a paper containing the latitude
and longitude; and, adding our names and places
of abode, We requested that the person who
might pick it up would inform any of the parties.
Although we had no great expectation of hearing
more of the bottle after it was thrown into the
sea, yet I had not been long in America before
the paper was handed to me, having been picked
up on the sands near Newport

, in Rhode Island.
Thus, contrary to the received opinion respecting
the current of the gulf stream, it had been carried
in a north-westerly direction. There seemed no