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! Fix not on the world thy trust, 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 that my rude lines are most like the original. say JOURNAL OF A VOYAGE TO INDIA. lv 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 Ivi 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, The tyger for the fallow-deer!" The A tropic bird was seen to-day, very large, and white as snow, but without the two long tailfeathers which are his principal ornament. 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 |