for the same Reason those homewards bound from America, endeavour to gain the Latitude of thirty Degrees, as soon as possible, where they first find the Winds begin to be variable; tho' the most ordinary Winds in the Northern part of the Atlantick Ocean come from between the South and West.
As to those furious Storms call'd Hurricanes, which are, as it were, peculiar to the Caribbee Isles; and which so dreadfully afflict them in the Month of August, or not much before or after, they do not so properly belong to this place, both by Reason of their small continuance and extent, as likewise because they are not Anniversary, some Years having more than one, and sometimes for several Years together there being none at all. But their Violence is so unconceivable, and their other Phænomena so surprising, that they merit well to be consider'd apart.
What is here said, is to be understood of the Sea Winds at some distance from the Land; for upon and near the Shoars, the Land and Sea Breezes are almost every where sensible; and the great Variety which happens in their Periods, Force and Direction, from the situation of the Mountains, Vallies and Woods, and from the various Texture of the Soil, more or less capable of retaining and reflecting Heat, and of exhaling or condensing Vapours, is such, that it were an endless task, to endeavour to account for them.
II. In the Indian Ocean, the Winds are partly general, as in the Æthiopick Ocean, partly Periodical; that is, half the Year they blow one way, and the other half near upon the opposite Points; and these Points and Times of shifting are different in different parts of this Ocean; the limits of each Tract of Sea, subject to the same Change or Monsoon, are certainly very hard to determine, but the diligence I have used to be rightly inform'd, and the care I have taken therein, has, in a great measure, surmounted that Difficulty; and I