was two Degrees West Variation. Anno 1675, it was 8° 50' West; and in the Year 1691, it was curiously observ'd not less than eleven Degrees West.
At St. Helena, about the Year 1600, the Needle declin'd eight Degrees to the East. Anno 1623, it was but 6° 0' East. Anno 1677, when I was there, I observ'd it accurately on Shoar to be 0° 40' East; and in 1692 it was found about 1° to the Westward of the North.
At Cape Comorine in India, in the Year 1620, there was 14° 20' West Variation. In the Year 1680, there was 8° 48', but now lately in the Year 1688, it was no more than 7° 30', so that here the Needle has return'd to the East about seven Degrees in seventy Years.
In all the other Examples the Needle has gradually mov'd towards the West, and the places are too far asunder to be influenc'd by the removal of any Magnetical Matter, which may by accident be transplac'd within the Bowels, or on the Surface of the Earth. If more Examples are desir'd, the Reader may be furnished with them in the Portugueze Routier of Aleixo de Motta (written about the Year 1600) and in the Voyage of Beaulieu , both publish'd in Mr. Thevenot 's first Collection of curious Voyages, Printed at Paris , Anno 1663; which he is to compare with the Journals of our late East India Voyagers, and I am assur'd, that it will be thereby evident, that the Direction of the Needle is in no place fix'd and constant, tho' in some it change faster than in others: And where for a long time it has continu'd as it were unalter'd, it is there to be understood, that the Needle has its greatest Deflection, and is become Stationary in order to return, like the Sun, in the Tropick. This, at present, is in the Indian Sea , about the Island Mauritius , where is the highest West Variation, and