20 VISITS TO MADAGASCAK. chap. ii. 



should have appeared, presented an unbroken line of sea and 

 sky. These circumstances forced upon us the conviction that, 

 although at one time it was said we were only fifteen miles 

 from the anchorage, and at another that land was actually in 

 sight, both captain and mate were probably doing little more 

 than guessing at our position. 



On the morning of the 17th we stood towards the land 

 with a fair wind, but, on approaching the coast about noon, 

 near a small island called Plumb Island, Ave found ourselves 

 about six or eight miles to the north of the entrance to the port, 

 with the wiud and sea driving us still further away. We stood 

 out to sea again for a couple of hours, and then returned ; but 

 finding ourselves, on nearing the land, still fruther from our 

 port, with the wind increasing against us, our vessel was once 

 more turned towards the open sea. As we sailed as near to the 

 wind as possible, and the sea was very rough, the motion of our 

 light ship was exceedingly violent, and the effect of this upon 

 my own feelings was heightened by the wretched accommoda- 

 tion on board, and by my remembrance of having, in one of my 

 former voyages, been kept twenty-one days out of harbour in 

 consequence of having, in a heavy gale of wind, made the land 

 on the coast of New Holland four miles to leeward of the port. 



The following night, so far as regarded external circum- 

 stances, was miserable enough. The howling of the wind, 

 the dashing of the spray over our ship and into our cabin, 

 the rattling of seats and boxes about the floor, the banging of 

 cupboard doors without fastenings, the flickering of a dim 

 dirty lamp swinging to and fro, and the frequent inspection of 

 the chart by the captain, made the hours of darkness pass very 

 heavily. But it was not in relation to my own personal experi- 

 ence alone that these circumstances imparted their own dismal 

 character to the tenour of my thoughts, for I found myself 

 reflecting on the cheerless manner in which the last hours of 

 one of the devoted missionaries to Madagascar, Mr. Jeffreys, 



