which answered the purpose just as well as if it had been entirely correct.[1]
On the 27th of January, at five o'clock in the evening, I took the Watch on board the Merlin sloop of eighteen guns. Captain Bourke, who was under orders to sail express for England; and accordingly at five in the morning of the 28th, they weighed and sailed out of the harbour of Port Royal. [Here the writer notes in their order, the Islands of Navasa, Hispaniola, Cuba, Tortuga, Hencago, Achilles's Keys, Fortune and Crooked Island, and continues] In the evening, February 10th, we saw Bird Island; and from that time till the 24th of March we saw no land, nor did we expect to see any, and we then, according to my reckoning by the Watch, made the Lizard within ten miles of what I expected.—I have already observed to you, that the Watch made an error of two minutes and thirty-six seconds in going to Jamaica; which error I could easily account for, as it is not in so perfect a state as we could make it; but the Commissioners[2] wanted to know
- ↑ Being writing to a person not much conversant with the subject, he has not mentioned and deducted the rate of going for the time.
- ↑ If we understand, by this word, the predominant party at the Boards which would be proper enough, their motives for wanting "to know what the Watch would do in its present state," although the young man does not appear to question them, at this time, were not very candid; for if they desired the trial should succeed to the fullest extent, would they not have advised the Candidate to make his work as perfect as he could. Had the Timekeeper, from some imperfect adjustment, failed to come not only within the least, but the greater limits prescribed, they would have congratulated him on its performance being so nearly within the terms of the Act, and expressed their belief that, but for the circumstance mentioned, it would have become entitled to £20,000; but then they would have sung out, that since it had resulted otherwise, it was out of their power to offer him more than another trial when he should be prepared for it. Now it turns out that, about this time, the reverend Nevil Maskelyne, B.D. afterwards (at Barbadoes) the avowed rival of the Candidate, was making a private voyage to St. Helena, in a merchant brig, furnished with Professor Mayer's Tables, which had been imported in 1756, to find the Longitude by the Moon—a step then unknown to the Harrisons, and which it becomes exceedingly difficult to acquit the mathematical Com-
