36 PASSAGE FROM MADEIRA 
day may be fair. The same appearance was observed after a shower 
of rain as before. The temperature of the air was found here to be 
75-7°, and of the water 81°. 
The seine was drawn for fish in one of the coves to the eastward 
of the anchorage, in what we understood was a place well adapted 
for the purpose, but it did not prove so. I should prefer the western 
beach as offering better luck, and being more advantageous. 
Bats were the only wild mammiferous animals seen here. For 
the short time we remained, our naturalists were actively employed, 
and many specimens were added to our collections in Ornithology, 
Botany, Shells, and Zoophytes, with some fossils from the bank 
already spoken of. 
Slaves are imported from the coast of Africa, and settlers or heads 
of families are not allowed to bring with them more than ten slaves. 
There was one at the consul's, recently imported from the Foolah 
district in Africa, who was purchased by him for one hundred and 
fifty dollars. 
The costumes are here so various that it can scarcely be said that 
any one of them is peculiar to the island. The men generally wear 
a white shirt and trousers, with a dark vest, principally the cast- 
off clothing of the whites. Others go quite naked, excepting a 
straw hat; others again are in loose shirts. The women have a 
shawl fastened around them, with occasionally another thrown over 
them, covering the mouth and bust, and crossing over behind. The 
children for the most part go naked. 
The Relief not having arrived, I deemed it an unnecessary 
detention to await her here. There was great necessity of reaching 
Rio de Janeiro as soon as possible, in order to complete our outfits, 
and put the vessels in a fit condition to meet the Antarctic cruising 
as soon as possible. I therefore determined to proceed thither forth- 
with. The store-ship did not reach Porto Pray a until the 18th, 
after a passage from Hampton Roads of sixty days. Nothing more 
truly illustrates the necessity of navigating in the prevailing winds, 
than this passage of the Relief compared with that of the squadron. 
We took the route by Madeira, over one thousand miles greater in 
distance, remained there a week, and yet we arrived at Porto Praya 
eleven days sooner. The Relief, pursuing the direct route, had 
light baffling winds during her whole passage. Although something 
is undoubtedly due to her dull sailing, yet the difference is too great 
to be entirely attributed to that cause. The winds were generally 
