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The other, or westerly, is called the bad monsoon, consisting of blustering rainy weather, accompanied with much thunder and lightning, especially in December, January, and February. This bad monsoon begins in November and ends in March or the beginning of April; during which the land-winds are W.S.W. or S.W. and the sea-winds at N.W. and W.N.W.

With this view we sailed from Cape Corientes on the 31st March, and next noon, being thirty leagues from the cape, clear of the land-winds, we had the wind at E.N.E. in which direction it continued till we were within forty leagues of Guam.

But what proves the most destructive is, that there is no dependence on the wind in that part of the world for any length of time. There are no regular land-winds; and the sea-wind is not perceived there at all, the situation of the tree being at too great a distance, and surrounded by high mountains and uncultivated forests.

Not a wretch shrunk any where; and I assure you it was a very arduous task, but I had formed a very correct judgment of all I saw, and was confident, if supported, I should succeed. I could not wait for an offshore wind to attack; the season was too far advanced, and the land-winds become light and calmy.

These land-winds are also very destructive to the goods and chattels exposed to them; desks are warped and will not shut, leather gloves and shoes become so dry that they shrink and divide, while all unseasoned wood is speedily split across.

The former may be composed of grains of rock, disintegrated indeed, and re-cemented together, but not, in the meanwhile, much rolled; the latter, of sands long washed by the sea, and drifted by land-winds.

We found variation here 2 degrees 15 minutes east. When the sea was smooth by the land-winds we sent our boats ashore for water; who, in a few turns, filled all our casks. The land here is low, swampy and woody; the mould is a dark grey, friable earth.

The air is continually refreshed, by the sea-breeze by day and the land-winds at night, so that they are not troubled with such excessive heats, neither are they so unwholesome as most places so near the equator.

The weather is here extremely regular, and the inhabitants know how to use it to the best advantage. During the eastern monsoon, the land-winds are at S.E. Sometimes more southerly; and the sea-winds blow from the N.E. fine pleasant gales. This easterly monsoon is accounted the good monsoon, being fine clear and fair weather, and begins in April, ending in October.

Winds are advertisements of all they touch, however much or little we may be able to read them; telling their wanderings even by their scents alone. Mariners detect the flowery perfume of land-winds far at sea, and sea-winds carry the fragrance of dulse and tangle far inland, where it is quickly recognized, though mingled with the scents of a thousand land-flowers.