Voyage to the Western Coast of Africa. 223 



are stored. Every evening, also, water is allowed to flow into 

 the ship's well, and it is pumped out again by the morning watch. 

 By this practice the hold, which is generally so offensive by its 

 effluvia, is kept clean and wholesome. 



The seamen have now been provided with alight duck jacket 

 and blue cuffs, and the marines have a similar jacket with scar- 

 let cuffs. This forms at once a cool and agreeable dress in the 

 hot and sultry weather which now prevails. The barometer 

 varies from SO^i^g to 30 ; the thermometer from 79° to 74°. 



Lat. 9° 40'. — Between the 16th and 22d December, the wea^ 

 ther has been generally very warm and nearly calm. On the 20th 

 Ave struck sounding off Sierra Leone, but did not see the land. 

 The crew are healthy, the sick list consisting only of five, all of 

 them trifling complaints. One of them, R. Roswell, has been in 

 the list ever since we sailed ; his complaint is a pain in the loin, 

 from a hurt received two years ago in a former ship, and there 

 is no appearance of his recovering. We have had a partial sup- 

 ply of fish caught with the hook. The usual attention is always 

 paid to keep the lower decks well aired with windsails and stoves 

 every day. Several of the crew have been flogged lately for 

 getting drunk ; but I have now fallen upon an expedient which 

 I think will be an effectual remedy. A large wooden collar is 

 made, painted red, white, and blue ; this is put about the neck 

 of the person who is found drunk, and he is obliged to wear it 

 until he find another person in the same condition. This is an 

 excellent plan for detecting any one in liquor, as the punishment 

 is severely felt from the ridicule and shame to which the person 

 is subjected who wears it, and, of course, he is induced to look 

 out sharply among the rest in order to be himself reheved. The 

 thermometer, since we arrived on the coast, has always been high- 

 est after sunset. When at 82° during the day, about eight or 

 nine o'clock in the evening it has risen to 84°. This does not 

 arise from any heat in the ship, as it hangs in a draft of air in 

 the cabin, where all the windows are continually kept up. I 

 have likewise observed for some days a variation in the barome- 

 ter. About noon it falls ,'„th of an inch under 30, and always 

 rises again in the evening. This cannot be from the rarefaction 

 and expansion of any small particle of air that may be above the 

 mercury in the tube, as the thcrmouiclcr is highest in the even- 



