294 



VOYAGE TO PERNAMBUCO. 



instructions from a frigate, which was bound to 

 the Mediterranean, intending to keep company 

 with her as far as her destination and their's 

 obliged them to follow the same course ; but in 

 the morning we discovered that we were with 

 another frigate, which was bound to Lisbon. 

 We soon left her, and were accompanied by 

 other two Portuguese ships. On the night of 

 the 22d, we fell in with the Kangaroo sloop of 

 war, which was bound to the coast of Africa, 

 with a few vessels under convoy. On the 24th 

 we parted from this convoy, and on the 26th 

 proceeded with only one Portuguese ship. Our 

 passage was most prosperous; we had no bois- 

 terous weather, and few calms. On the 3d De- 

 cember, we fell in with the Arethusa frigate, 

 when in sight of the Canary islands. The cap- 

 tain of the Serra was obliged to take the papers 

 of his ship on board the frigate. The regulations 

 regarding the slave-trade, which is carried on by 

 the Portuguese, perhaps occasioned more en- 

 quiry than would otherwise have been deemed 

 necessary. We crossed the line on the 22d. In 

 the evening of the 26th we stood for the land, 

 supposing that we had reached the latitude of 

 our port, but that we were much to the east- 

 ward of it ; however, we made the land about 

 two o'clock in the morning, which was sooner 

 by several hours than the officers of the ship 

 imagined we should. This frequently occurs on 



