lvi JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. situation so new. tum! Deus adjuvet per Jesum Chris Friday, September 12.-Few things now occur to insert except my progress in Hindoostanee. The following lines are also from the Gulistân, rather more loosely translated than some of those which have preceded them. I have, however, sufficiently preserved their character. "Who the silent man can prize, If a fool he be or wise? Yet, though lonely seem the wood, Tongue of fire and heart of steel. Lest thou rouse, with luckless spear, A tropic bird was seen to-day, very large, and white as snow, but without the two long tailfeathers which are his principal ornament. The immense distance from land at which these birds are seen is really surprising. The isle of Bourbon is the nearest point, and that must be a distance of 2000 miles. For many days back the beautiful Cape pigeons have ceased to attend us, On Sunday, September 14, we had again Divine service, and I afterwards (as has been my occasional custom for some time back) prayed with the sick below. Their number still continues inconsiderable, and there is no case of absolute danger, JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. lvii though one poor lad has had a very tedious intermitting fever. Symptoms of our advanced progress are visible in the preparations making in the cutter, which Captain Manning is sheathing with zinc, and fitting up with masts and sails for the navigation of the Ganges. His good-nature and obliging disposition have spared us another preparation which at these times is usual. I mean, painting the ship previous to her appearing in harbour; an operation which must have made the whole population of the vessel miserable for some days. I am heartily glad to escape this. September 18.-This evening we had a most beautiful sunset-the most remarkable recollected by any of the officers or passengers, and I think the most magnificent spectacle I ever saw. Besides the usual beautiful tints of crimson, flame-colour, &c. which the clouds displayed, and which were strangely contrasted with the deep blue of the sea, and the lighter, but equally beautiful blue of the sky, there were in the immediate neighbourhood of the sinking sun, and for some time after his disk had disappeared, large tracts of a pale translucent green, such as I had never seen before, except in a prism, and surpassing every effect of paint, or glass, or gem. Every body on board was touched and awed by the glory of the scene, and many observed that such a spectacle alone was worth the whole voyage from England. One circumstance in the scene struck me as different from all which I had been led to expect in a tropical sunset. I mean, lviii JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. that its progress from light to darkness was much more gradual than most travellers and philosophers have stated. The dip of the sun did not seem more rapid, nor did the duration of the tints on the horizon appear materially less than on similar occasions in England. Neither did I notice any striking difference in the continuance of the twilight. I pointed out the fact to Major Sackville, who answered, that he had long been convinced that the supposed rapidity of sunrise and sunset in India had been exaggerated,—that he had always found a good hour between dawn and sunrise, and little less between sunset and total darkness. As, indeed, we are at present within three degrees of the line, we must, à fortiori, have witnessed this precipitancy of the sun, if it really existed any where, in a still greater degree than it can be witnessed in any part of Hindostan. September 19.-I wakened before dawn this morning, and had therefore an opportunity of verifying, to a certain extent, Major Sackville's observations on a tropical sunrise. I had no watch, but to my perceptions his account was accurate. Our breeze continues very light, and the heat intense. Our progress, however, is steady, and we were this day at twelve, south lat. 1° 16'. We had again a fine sunset which, though inferior to that of the day before, was decorated by two concentric rainbows of considerable beauty and brilliancy, the colours of the outer rainbow being arranged in a reverse succession to that of the usual prism, which JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. lix was visible in its companion. A night of glorious moonshine followed, with a moderate breeze, and we were supposed to pass the line about eleven o'clock A.M. September 21.-Nothing remarkable occurred on the 20th. This morning we had divine service, with the awning up, and the crew seated, the first time that this has been possible since we passed the Cape. The weather continues fine, but very hot. In the evening we were apprehended to be about ninety miles from the coast of Ceylon, and a trick was attempted on the passengers, which is on such occasions not unusual, by sprinkling the rail of the entrance port with some fragrant substance, and then asking them if they do not perceive the spicy gales of Ceylon? Unluckily no oil of cinnamon was found on shipboard, though anxiously hunted for, and peppermint-water, the only succedaneum in the doctor's stores, was not what we expected to find, and therefore did not deceive us. Yet, though we were now too far off to catch the odours of land, it is, as we are assured, perfectly true, that such odours are perceptible to a very considerable distance. In the straits of Malacca, a smell like that of a hawthorn hedge is commonly experienced; and from Ceylon, at thirty or forty miles, under certain circumstances, a yet more agreeable scent is inhaled. September 24.-A violent squall came on this morning about seven o'clock. Happily Captain 1x JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. Manning foresaw it from an uneasy sensation in the ship's motion, and took in all possible sail, to the surprise of his officers, who saw no reason for the measure. He was, however, only just in time, for a moment after, we were laid nearly on our beam ends, and had we been carrying any thing like our previous sail, must have been completely dismasted. Tremendous rain followed, with some thunder and lightening, and continued the greater part of the day. Towards evening the rain ceased, and the wind became light. The weather was, however, thick and hazy, and I never saw so much lightening as continued to flash on every side of us during the greater part of the night. Several of the passengers think this symptomatic of the change of the Monsoon, the usual period of which, indeed, is not till the middle of next month; but it sometimes terminates prematurely, even as early as our present date. This possibility has a little damped the spirits of our party, since, though there are, I believe, several among us who will be almost sorry when our voyage is at an end, none of us can look forward without disappointment to the prospect of the indefinite delay, the uncertain weather, and probable hurricanes to which this event would expose us. No observation could be taken this day (September 25.) During the early part of the morning we lay completely becalmed, surrounded with very aweful and magnificent thunder-storms, which swept past us in all directions, but without coming nigh us. A water-spout was also seen, but at a distance. At length a light breeze arose, but |