376 TEE CBUI8E OF THE ''CACHALOT:' 



north, our head pointed for home ? Immediately upon 

 rounding them we hauled up four points, and, with 

 daily improving weather, climbed the southern slopes 

 towards the line. 



Very humdrum and quiet the life appeared to all of 

 us, and had it not been for the saving routine of work 

 by day, and watch by night, kept up with all our old 

 discipline, the tedium would have been insupportable 

 after the incessant excitement of expectation to which 

 we had so long been accustomed. Still, our passage 

 was by no means a bad one for a slow ship, being 

 favoured by more than ordinarily steadfast winds until 

 we reached the zone of the south-east trades again, 

 where the usual mild, settled wind and lovely weather 

 awaited us. On and on, unhasting but unresting, we 

 stolidly jogged, by great good fortune slipping across 

 the *' doldrums " — that hateful belt of calms about the 

 line so much detested by all sailor-men — without losing 

 the south-east wind. 



Not one day of calm delayed us, the north-east trades 

 meeting us like a friend sent to extend a welcoming hand 

 and lend us his assistance on our homeward way. They 

 hung so far to the eastward, too — sometimes actually at 

 east-by-north — that we were able to steer north on the 

 starboard tack — a slice of luck not usually met with. 

 This " slant " put all hands in the best of humours, and 

 already the date of our arrival was settled by the more 

 sanguine ones, as well as excellent plans made for 

 spending the long voyage's earnings. 



For my part, having been, in spite of my youth, 

 accustomed to so many cruel disappointments and slips 

 between the cup and lip, I was afraid to dwell too 

 hopefully upon the pleasures (?) of getting ashore. And 

 after the incident which I have now to record occurred, 



