170 



COAST OF MEXICO. 



without meeting a gale of wind, or encountering 

 bad weather of any kind ; and as we had not been 

 able to obtain particular information respecting 

 the navigation of this coast, we sailed along it 

 with the same confidence of meeting everywhere 

 the delightful weather we had been accustomed 

 to. We had, as usual in such climates, all our 

 thread-bare sails bent, our worn-out ropes rove, 

 and were in no respect prepared to encounter 

 storms. On the evening of the 24th of Febru- 

 ary, the sun set with astonishing splendour, but 

 with a wild lurid appearance, which, in any other 

 country, would have put us more upon our guard. 

 The sun itself, when still considerably above the 

 horizon, became of a blood-red colour, and the 

 surrounding clouds assumed various bright tinges 

 of a fiery character, fading into purple at the ze- 

 nith: the whole sky looked more angry and 

 threatening than anything I ever saw before. 

 The sea was quite smooth, but dyed with a 

 strange and unnatural kind of redness by the re- 

 flection from the sky. In spite of the notions we 

 held of the fineness of the climate, I was made a 

 little uneasy by such threatening appearances^ 



