i86 



and day. No change : no neyr arrangement 

 — occaiiooal bracing, only, was required I 

 We Rood before the wind, and in all the de- 

 light of fair weather, and fine failing, made 

 from 1 60 to 200 knots within the failor's 

 day— from noon to noon. In fuch feas, and 

 Vvlrh fuch a wind, the iliip's company might 

 have flept ; leaving the hehnfman only, to 

 fteer the veiTcl's courfe. The delay, the dif- 

 ficulties and dangers we had met with, ferved 

 but to augment the value of the ever-con- 

 ftant trades, and to render them even more 

 enchanting than we had hoped. The fteadi- 

 nefs of this friendly breeze, and its certainty 

 of duration, likewife enhanced its charms. 

 So truly delightful did we find it, and fo 

 pleafant were the wide ocean, and the wea- 

 ther, that, had not former ficknefs,- with the 

 torment of repeated gales, already confirmed 

 my abhorrence of the fea, I know not but I 

 might have been led into the belief that dif- 

 comfort and a failor's life were not ftridly 

 fynonimo.us ! 



It were wrong to adulterate thefe happy 

 tidings— or to chequer this letter with any 



