board to the other, turns her ftern to windward; it is the oppofite to tacking, in which the head is turned to the windward and the ftern to leeward.

WINDLASS, a machine used in merchant ships to heave up the anchors. It is a large cylindrical piece of timber, fupported at the two ends by two frames of. wood, placed on the oppofite fides of the deck near the fore-maft, and is turned about as upon an axis, by levers called handfpecs, which are for this purpose thrust into holes bored through the body of the machine,

WOOLDING, the act of winding a piece of rope about a mast or yard, to fupport it in a place where it may been fished or fear fed; or when it is composed of feveral pieces united into one folid.

Y.

YARD, a long piece of timber fufpended upon the mafts of a fhip, to extend the fails to the wind.

YAW, the movement by which a fhip deviates from the line of her course towards the right or left in fteering.

VOL. I.

d

DIREC

ΑΝ

ACCOUNT

OF A

Voyage round the World,

IN THE YEARS

MDCCLXIV, MDCCLXV, and MDCCLXVI,

By the Honourable COMMODORE BYRON, In his Majefty's Ship the DOLPHIN,

CHA P. I.

The Paffage from the Downs to Rio de
Janeiro.

[The longitude in this voyage is reckoned from the meridian.
of London, weft to 180 degree:, and eaft afterwards.]

1764. June.

Tue day 3.

N the 21st of June 1764, I failed from the Downs, with his Majefty's fhip the Dol phin, and the Tamar frigate, which I had received Thursd. 21. orders to take under my command: as I was coming down the river, the Dolphin got a-ground; I therefore put into Plymouth, where fhe was docked, but did not appear to have received any damage. At this place we changed fome of our men, and having paid the people two months wages in advance, I hoifted the broad pendant, July. and failed again on the 3d of July; on the 4th we Wednes.4. were off the Lizard, and made the beft of our way with a fine breeze, but had the mortification to find the Tamar a very heavy failer. In the night of Friday the 6th, the officer of the first watch faw Friday 6. either a ship on fire, or an extraordinary phenomenon which greatly refembled it, at fome diftance: it continued to blaze for about half an hour, and then disappeared. In the evening of Thurfday, Thurfd. 12. July the 12th, we faw the rocks near the island of Madeira, which our people call the Deferters;