Page:A voyage to New Holland - Dampier.djvu/154

The wind blew extraordinary hard all Wednesday the 7th of June but abated of its fierceness before night: yet it continued a brisk gale till about the 16th, and still a moderate one till the 19th day; by which time we had run about 600 leagues: for the most part of which time the wind was in some point of the west, namely from the west-north-west to the south by west. It blew hardest when at west or between the west and south-west, but after it veered more southerly the foul weather broke up: this I observed at other times also in these seas, that when the storms at west veered to the southward they grew less; and that when the wind came to the east of the south we had still smaller gales, calms, and fair weather. As for the westerly winds on that side the Cape, we like them never the worse for being violent, for they drive us the faster to the eastward; and are therefore the only winds coveted by those who sail towards such parts of the East Indies as lie south of the equator; as Timor, Java, and Sumatra; and by the ships bound for China, or any other that are to pass through the Straits of Sunda. Those ships having once passed the Cape keep commonly pretty far southerly, on purpose to meet with these west winds, which in the winter season of these climates they soon meet with; for then the winds are generally westerly at