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entertainment to a stranger, as well as a luxury at his meals. 

 Many are curious and finely coloured, but I am no adept in 

 icthyology, and only sketched the most beautiful; the mackarel are 

 inferior to those in Europe; the little fish called ihe bull's-eye is 

 delicious, equally so the cunning-fish, thus called from its stealing 

 the bait, and eluding the hook. The hog-fish is curious, and the 

 green-fish vies with the dolphin in alternate changes of purple, 

 crimson, green, and gold. 



"We left St. Helena on the last day of February, and favoured 

 by the south-east trade-wind crossed the line on the 12th of March; 

 there it forsook us, and was succeeded by variable breezes, squalls, 

 calms, thunder, lightning, and heavy rain, with a hot condensed 

 atmosphere. This unpleasant weather continued until the 23d, 

 when being in the latitude of 7° 12' north, we flattered ourselves with 

 the hope of meeting the north-east trade wind, and soon terminat- 

 ing our voyage; but different scenes awaited us: after a moderate 

 breeze all that clay, followed by a mild evening, we retired to rest 

 as usual about ten o'clock. At midnight the officer upon deck 

 was alarmed by the noise of a swelling surf, and very soon dis- 

 tinctly heard the hollow surges successively rolling upon a near 

 shore. The captain was instantly called, and a general alarm suc- 

 ceeded : on sounding we found only ten fathoms water, when we 

 imagined ourselves on the Atlantic ocean,, some hundred miles 

 from land. As the wind blew fresh on the land, there was no 

 time for deliberation; we therefore anchored immediately, and 

 at day-break beheld within a mile of the ship a sandy beach, 

 shaded by groves of cocoa-nut and tamarind trees, but could not 

 distinguish any hills or mountains. We now knew it to be a part 



