2 



VOYAGE FROM ENGLAND 



anxiety of the captain and crew till we passed the Islands of Scilly, contrasted 

 with the happy security which they then evinced, were proofs of the importance 

 they attached to it. The feelings of Englishmen on quitting the British shores 

 must be various, and, in many instances, exquisitely interesting in pensive 

 reflections. As for myself, the animated attachment for my native land and 

 those so dear to me left behind produced a melancholy, heightened by the 

 surrounding oceanic scene, which, on the other hand, was alleviated not only 

 by a humble reliance upon that Almighty, in whose paternal hands is the 

 greater or less share of happiness of all his creatures, but also by the hope of a 

 successful issue attending the voyage — 



" Hope that whispers promised pleasure. 

 And bids the lovely scenes at distance hail." 



We were favoured with a propitious breeze, which continued steady, at the 

 rate of seven, eight, and nine miles an hour. On the 12th, we passed between 

 the Island of Madeira and the African coast: the vicinity of the former, 

 although we did not see it, was announced by the appearance of sea gulls, 

 the only birds I had hitherto noticed, excepting one swallow and the mother 

 cary's chicken, not unlike the former at a distance, but rather larger, having 

 white feathers above the tail and under the belly, the rest of a brownish cast. 

 It is said to hatch and carry its young on the water, and is seen, I understand, 

 in every part of the Atlantic as well as the Indian and Pacific Oceans. We met 

 with the swallow in about 40° north latitude and 15° west longitude; it made 

 several attempts to alight upon the vessel, but was prevented by the dog; ap_ 

 parently fatigued, it continued its flight in a northerly direction. This is a phe- 

 nomenon attending the migration of those birds, favouring the opinion that they 

 visit some southern or tropical climate, during the cold season in England, and 

 is opposed to the hypothesis advanced by some of their immersion in ponds, 

 and by others of their taking l efuge in old walls and ruins. That they assume 

 such a state of torpitude as the first would infer is very improbable. 



On the morning of the 14th of April, we discovered the high peaks of three 

 of the Canary Islands at a great distance. Grand Canary bearing south-west, 

 and Lanzarote and Fortaventura south-east. The world of waters which had 

 hitherto, from its varied and sometimes terrific agitation, filled the imagination 

 with awe, was now changed into a pacific, but grand expanse, that soothed and 

 absorbed the mind with its tranquil magnificence ; and the weather, which had 

 been cold and gloomy, was changed into a balmy mildness and enlivening 



