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The technicians came, commanded by General Max Shorter, sixty-three years old. Men wearing the circle whose diameter was etched in ruby steel enclosing a background of gleaming ebon the emblem was a silver D over a sunburst of hammered gold. The surface of Miracastle roiled with unfamiliar storms and tornados and hurricanes.

We continued to meet these currents from that latitude till we came into the latitude of 3 degrees 22 north when they ceased. During this time we saw some bonetas and sharks; catching one of these. We had the true general tradewind blowing fresh at north-east till in the latitude of 4 degrees 40 minutes north when the wind varied, and we had small gales with some tornados.

During the 18th a great number of articles, and one of the asses, were stolen from the sick soldiers, who had scarcely strength to defend themselves; and one of the party not having come up, Park supposed, with too much probability, that he had been stripped and murdered. During that and the following day they had three tornados.

We marched several miles through a winding hollow, passing a deserted rancho, and ascending with much labour a steep ridge of hills, descending which we entered a handsome valley, and encamped upon a small stream about four miles from the mission of St. Ynes. The banks of the arroyo are strewn with dead and prostrate timber, the trees, large and small, having been overthrown by tornados.

Everywhere the pious Doctor discovered the hand of Lucifer; everywhere he beheld the consequences of superstition and Satanism; cataclysms, floods, tornados, typhoons, plagues, cholera, representing the normal state of health and habit, and the consequences of universal persuasion in favour of the fiend.

At this season the mornings are very hazy, with the thermometer at sunrise 60 degrees; one laid on grass during the night falling 7 degrees below that temperature: dew forms, but never copiously: by 10 a.m. the temperature has risen to 75 degrees, and the faint easterly morning breezes die away; the haze thickens, and covers the sky with a white veil, the thermometer rising to 82 degrees at noon, and the west wind succeeding in parching tornados and furious gusts, increasing with the temperature, which attains its maximum in the afternoon, and falling again with its decline at sunset.

I kept up against these as well as I could to the southward, and when we had now and then a flurry of wind at east I still went away due south, purposely to get to the southward as fast as I could; for while near the Line I expected to have but uncertain winds, frequent calms, rains, tornados, etc. which would not only retard my course but endanger sickness also among my men: especially those who were ill provided with clothes, or were too lazy to shift themselves when they were drenched with the rains.

Calms, also, are met with in this intermediate region, or purgatory of the outward-bound voyage, and occasionally violent tornados or squalls, which in a moment tear away every rag of canvas from a ship's yards. For several hours at a time, also, rain falls down in absolute torrents.

'But the captain in a singular wise manner carried himself with countenance very cheerful outwardly, although inwardly his heart was broken in pieces for it; done to this end, that the Portugais, being with him, should not presume to resist against him. After losing five more men, who were eaten by sharks, Hawkins shaped his course westward with a good cargo of negroes and 'other merchandises. 'Contrary winds and some tornados happened to us very ill.

In April the southerly winds make their entrance on this coast, bringing in the wet season, with violent tornados, thunder and lightning, and much rain. In September the other coasting trade at east-north-east comes in and clears the sky, bringing fair weather.