JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. li August 19.-During the night we made considerable southing, and passed the Cape. In the evening we had a distant but tolerably distinct view of the Cape Aguillas or Lagullos, the most southerly promontory of Africa. Our wind is now lighter, but the swell still great; such a swell, (and indeed much more, all things considered, than we now feel), is to be expected on the banks of Lagullos, a range of submarine mountains, of extent not yet ascertained, which project from the foot of Southern Africa, like a vast buttress to support it against the invasions of the Antarctic Ocean. The depth of water is considerable in every part of the bank, and consequently fish are scarce at any distance from shore. In the creeks and bays of the visible coast they are said to swarm. And thus we are in the Indian Ocean! August 20-23.-We have been these four days beating to and fro on the bank of Lagullos, with a contrary wind or no wind at all, alternately, suffering a good deal from the motion of the vessel. On the 22nd we were on the supposed position of the Telemaque shoal, when a boy at the mast-head cried out, "breakers." They turned out, however, to be only the reflection of the sun on the waves. So that the existence or situation of this danger is still as dubious as ever. August 24.-A southern breeze sprung up this morning, and we have begun our progress eastward anew, though at present inclining much towards lii JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. the south, where Captain Manning hopes to find the wind more settled. We had prayers and a sermon, but the weather was, as on last Sunday, too unsettled to permit the men to sit down, or the awning to be extended. The breeze has, however, put all the party into much better spirits, and considering the degree in which we have been previously favoured, a four or five days' delay here is a trifling draw-back. August 30.-Alas! our flattering breeze left us in a few hours, and from Monday till Thursday, we had very little wind, and that adverse; yet we did not remain absolutely stationary, having got into a powerful, and, hitherto, little known current, from the S. W. which forwarded us on our voyage almost as much as a light wind would have done. On Wednesday evening and Thursday morning more particularly, though the weather was such a perfect calm that the ship was absolutely her own mistress, and would not answer the helm, yet we found to our surprise, that during the twenty-four hours, we had advanced two degrees of longitude. On Thursday a light breeze blew, which, with the friendly help of the current, helped us on three degrees more. And on Friday and Saturday we had a stiff gale, which fairly placed us at twelve o'clock the latter day in lat. 36° 52′ E. long. 42° 59′. This was, of course, not effected without considerable tossing. The day was rainy, and the sea broke over the 2 JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. liii quarter-deck fiercely. My wife, however, braved it, and walked a good deal, and all the men on board were in high spirits. Captain Manning said, "If there was virtue in canvass, he would make the run of the following day better than this;" which was 246 miles by the log, and I believe the best we have had during the present voyage. The current which so long befriended us is now replaced by another of an opposite tendency, appearing to come from the great channel of Mozambique, of which, in this day's run, we have been crossing the mouth. Our course is east, a little inclining to the north. The climate is very like that of England in spring. The passengers, however, and the young men more particularly, are not healthy, and several absentees are remarked from every dinner. Mr. Shaw says that he has seldom found a ship a favourable situation either for preserving or recovering health. The want of exercise and of mental employment sufficiently account for this. My own general good health I am convinced I owe in no small degree to my persevering walks on the quarter-deck, and my Hindoostanee studies. In these I certainly am not idle, though, alas! I cannot say much of my own proficiency. On Sunday 31st, we had again prayers and a sermon, though the weather was too unsettled to admit of the men sitting down, and consequently the former were curtailed a little of their just proportion. Afterwards I went with Captain Manning and Mr. Elliott the surgeon, to visit the sick seamen, of liv JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. whom there were three or four more seriously indisposed than usual. One poor man who was recovering from the effects of a fall a few days before, which had threatened to affect his brain, was very intelligent, and grateful to God for his deliverance. The others were not so favourably disposed. I persuaded them, however, to meet me in the afternoon, and join in a few prayers. Friday, September 5.-Here follows a version of part of this day's lesson from the Gulistân. It was the inscription, says Sadi, over the arched alcove of Feridoon's Hall. "Brother! know the world deceiveth! Trust on Him who safety giveth! Fix not on the world thy trust, She feeds us-but she turns to dust, And the bare earth or kingly throne Alike may serve to die upon !" The next is not so good, but is almost equally literal: both seem to confirm my suspicions as to the real character of Asiatic poetry. "The man who leaveth life behind, May well and boldly speak his mind. The feeble cat the mastiff tear." It is strange to see how flowery these passages become in Gladwin's translation; yet I can safely say that my rude lines are most like the original. JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. ly some season. On Tuesday the 9th, at twelve, we were in lat. 26° 55', long. 76° 44', with a fine wind from the south-east, which every body on board was willing to hope was the "trade wind." In consequence we look forward to our probable arrival at Saugor anchorage before the 1st of October; and some of our party are almost tempted to murmur at the singular rapidity with which our passage has been favoured, as bringing us into India at an unwholeFor my own part, I have no apprehensions either for myself or those most dear to me. We are all, at this moment, in excellent health. Our habits of living have been, for some time back, such as are most likely to enable us to bear a change of climate without injury, and even during the worst and most sickly time of the year in Calcutta, by all which I can learn, little more is necessary to preserve health than to be strictly temperate, and to remain quiet during the heat of the day, and while it rains. And, indeed, while we are enjoying and have enjoyed such daily and remarkable protection from God during the whole of our voyage, it would be cowardice in the extreme to distrust His further mercies, or to shrink back from those dangers which, some time or other, a resident in India must expect to encounter, and which a new-comer is, perhaps, as able to bear as any other person. I therefore feel at present nothing but pleasure in the anticipation of our speedy arrival in that scene where I am hereafter to labour; or if I feel any anxiety, it is only as to the manner in which I may be able to acquit myself of duties so important, and in a |