[39] 



CHAPTER II. 



jHIaving 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 as-ain sot 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 7^°, longitude 18° W., 

 welost it, ?nd got into the region of light variable breezes and 

 very sultrjMveather, the thermometer rising in the afternoon 

 to 82° and 84° ; the temperature of the sea being 80° and 81° ; 



