Note 4 — Chapter I

The passage, from England or France, to India is commonly reckoned to be six months; but it depends upon circumstances whether the voyage will be longer or shorter, and particularly on the season of the year and the situation of the place to which the ship is bound. As the monsoons, or mussongs, change every half year in the Indian seas, vessels bound to a certain place must often take a long circuitous course in order to fall in with the wind proper for conducting them to it. The change of the monsoons is always attended with violent storms, by which ships in the open sea often sustain great damage. The passage to India must, of course, be often prolonged. I, however, know instances of ships going thither from Europe in five months. F.