Tuesday 27 September 1836

Tuesday Sep^r 27. After obstinately persevering in taking the
ship out of our course for the last four days, the Captain has
once more altered his mind and we are again steering for
Rio. We have lost from four to five hundred miles by this
unaccountable and to my view unwarrantable proceeding,
but it is useless to complain or remonstrate. My position
precludes me from doing more than stating here what are
the opinions and feelings of every individual of common
sense on board, and I record them more in sorrow than in
anger. We are at present six or seven days sail from Rio;
had we not madly altered our course on the 24^th we should
have been, to-day, with the wind as it has stood ever since,
within three hundred miles of our port