[ 39 | 
CHAPTER II. 
Havine completed the Congo’s caulking in the evening 
of the 10th, I should have quitted Porto Praya the following 
morning, but it being Holy Thursday, consequently a great 
festival with Catholics, all the free inhabitants, drest in their 
best attire, were occupied the whole day in church ceremo- 
nies, which not permitting them to attend to worldly 
concerns, we could not get our business settled on shore, 
and were therefore obliged to defer sailing until the next day, 
in the afternoon of which we again got to sea. 
In compliment to the religion of the place, we this morn- 
ing, it being Good Friday, hoisted the colours half-mast, the 
fort having done so, and the Portuguese vessels putting them- 
selves in mourning by topping their yards up and down. 
At sun set the Peak of Fogo was seen nineteen leagues 
. 
distant. 
A moderate trade-wind between N. E. and E. N. E. conti- 
nued until the 18th, when in latitude 74°, longitude 18° W., 
we lost it, and got into the region of light variable breezes and 
very sultry weather, the thermometer rising in the afternoon 
to 82° and 84°; the temperature of the sea being 80° and 81°; 
