ABSTRACT
The recent change for the better after the series of disagreeable incidents that had marked our passage so far, could not fail to bring us more than passing satisfaction. Clear of the many dangers close to the island of Morotai 1 and increasingly experiencing the favourable effects of the strong current setting WNW, 2 accompanied by a fresh breeze, with the nights made pleasant by the great brilliance of the Moon, our situation was now all the happier by comparison with the unpleasant circumstances of the previous days. Our latitude at noon of 3°56′ and longitude 9° east of Manila demonstrated the continuation of these currents which, when compared to our dead reckoning, had carried us 15′ to the north and 10′ to the east since noon the previous day. Our position was in no doubt, given that our results were very close to those of the Atrevida’s chronometers and confirmed by a series distances from the Moon to Aldebaran observed the night before, whose mean was, if anything, somewhat to the east of that of the chronometers. Variation was about ½°NE.
