Ocean-car renh. — Cinyalc^c Pilot, 341 



The current, which runs northward along the coast of 

 Australia, but turns off to the westward about the tenth 

 degree of South latitude, so as to pass southward of Ceylon, 

 directly along the Equator to the Coast of Africa, carried us 

 far to the westward, in consequence of which we had 

 overcast, uncertain weather, with, for the most part, calms or 

 light breezes. As we found ourselves appi'oaching the fourth 

 degree of Northern latitude, a rather fresh N.E. wind sprung 

 up, probably the trade wind of the Northern Hemisphere, 

 which, however, as we neared Ceylon, again died away to 

 a calm, 



At the same time, in lat. 5° 32' N., 79° 5' E., we fell in with 

 a current running more than two miles an hour. We had, as 

 it turned out, got to the westward of the roadstead of Point de 

 Galle, in Ceylon, and found some little difficulty in making 

 headway against the current. On 7th January, toward 

 3.30 P.M., land was made to the eastward, and an hour later, 

 a Cingalese canoe was perceived making for the frigate under 

 sail. It was the pilot boat, whose crew, having been informed 

 by a Hamburg brig that a large ship was in sight, had 

 put to sea to meet us. 



At the first -sight of this little canoe, it was hardly possible 

 to refrain from amazement at the courage and hardihood with 

 which the half-naked Cingalese boatmen could put off some 30 

 or 40 miles to sea in such a tiny, narrow boat, that barely 

 gives them room to sit lengthwise. Two cross-bars, or out- 

 riggers, projecting on one side, where they are fastened 



