Chap. XV. AFRICAN SAILORS. 415 



volunteering not one of them had ever seen the sea. They 

 were not picked men, but, on paying a dozen whom we had 

 in our employment for fifteen months, they were taken at 

 random from several hundreds who offered to accompany 

 us. Their wages were ten shillings per mensem, and it 

 was curious to observe, that so eager were they to do their 

 duty, that only one of them lay down from sea-sickness 

 during the whole voyage. They took in and set sail very 

 cleverly in a short time, and would climb out along a boom, 

 reeve a rope through the block, and come back with the 

 rope in their teeth, though at each lurch the performer 

 was dipped in the sea. The sailor and carpenter, though 

 anxious to do their utmost, had a week's severe illness each, 

 and were unfit for duty. 



It is pleasant enough to take the wheel for an hour or 

 two, or even for a watch, but when it comes to be for every 

 alternate four hours, it is utterly wearisome. We set our 

 black men to steer, showing them which arm of the com- 

 pass needle was to be kept towards the vessel's head, and 

 soon three of them could manage very well, and they only 

 needed watching. In going up the East Coast to take 

 advantage of the current of one hundred miles a day, we 

 would fain have gone into the Juba or Webbe River, the 

 mouth of which is only 15' south of the line, but we were 

 too shorthanded. We passed up to about ten degrees north 

 of the Equator, and then steamed out from the coast. 

 Here Maury's wind chart showed that the calm-belt had 

 long been passed, but we were in it still ; and, instead of 

 a current carrying us north, we had a contrary current 

 which bore us every day four miles to the south. We 

 steamed as long as we dared, knowing as we did that we 

 must use the engines on the coast of India. 



After losing many days tossing on the silent sea, with 

 innumerable dolphins, flying-fish, and sharks around us, we 

 had six days of strong breezes, then calms again tried our 



