I have before observed, that at the beginning of this chace the _Centurion_ ran her two consorts out of sight, on which account we lay by all the night, after we had taken the prize, for Captain Saunders and Lieutenant Saumarez to join us, firing guns and making false fires every half-hour, to prevent their passing by us unobserved; but they were so far astern that they neither heard nor saw any of our signals, and were not able to come up with us till broad daylight. When they had joined us, we proceeded together to the northward, being now four sail in company. We here found the sea, for many miles round us, of a beautiful red colour. This, upon examination, we imputed to an immense quantity of spawn spread upon its surface; for, taking up some of the water in a wine glass, it soon changed from a dirty aspect to a clear crystal, with only some red globules of a slimy nature floating on the top. At present having a supply of timber on board our new prize, the commodore ordered our boats to be repaired, and a swivel gun-stock to be fixed in the bow both of the barge and pinnace, in order { 169} to encrease their force, in case we should be obliged to have recourse to them for boarding ships, or for any attempts on shore.
As we stood from hence to the northward, nothing remarkable occurred for two or three days, though we spread our ships in such a manner that it was not probable any vessel of the enemy could escape us. In our run along this coast we generally observed that there was a current which set us to the northward at the rate of ten or twelve miles each day. And now, being in about eight degrees of south latitude, we began to be attended with vast numbers of flying fish and bonitos, which were the first we saw after our departure from the coast of Brazil. But it is remarkable that on the east side of South America they extended to a much higher latitude than they do on the west side, for we did not lose them on the coast of Brazil till we approached the southern tropic. The reason for this diversity is doubtless the different degrees of heat obtaining in the same latitude on different sides of that continent. And on this occasion, I must beg leave to make a short digression on the heat and cold of different climates, and on the varieties which occur in the same place in different parts of the year, and in different places in the same degree of latitude.