U2 



NOTES ON BRAZIL. 



temper of the crew aggravated by the strict watchfulness and oeconomjr 

 which their thievery obhged us to maintain. 



The expected gale came on with violence, and we drifted before it, 

 until, at the end of ten days, we were in 36° 30' South, and, as we 

 judged, by Lunar observations, two hundred and forty miles from shore. 

 The Brazilian Captain, imagining that we were much nearer, and our 

 wants being very pressing, it was determined to run for Monte Video. 

 During the gale the conduct of the men had improved, and we began to 

 feel some confidence in them. Our vessel, too, was really a fine sea-boat, 

 and behaved uncommonly well; but, as in such cases is unavoidable, 

 we shipped a great deal of water. As it evaporated, we noticed a much 

 more considerable quantity of salt deposited by it than we had ever 

 observed, under similar circumstances, in the Northern hemisphere. 

 From this evidence of the water here holding in solution a larger pro- 

 portion of salt than common, and from our knowledge that, on the 

 nearest coast, it is found in singular abundance, we supposed that it 

 might, probably, lie in strata beneath the water. 



When the wind, still continuing violent, had settled into a hard 

 and steady gale, the form and motion of the water became unspeakably 

 majestic. The billows were broad and lofty, perfectly distinct from 

 each other, and undulated with the freedom of a pendulum. It was 

 evident that they struck no rock, and swept no bottom ; and we 

 were persuaded that, beneath them, there was a great body of fluid 

 undisturbed. We amused ourselves with conjectures about their height^ 

 the breadth of the vallies between them, and the depth to which the 

 influence of the wind extended. But we had no means of coming to 

 any satisfactory conclusions on these points, and could only agree that 

 the undulation of water, in vast masses and wide oceans, had never 

 found its proper place among the speculations of philosophers. There is, 

 probably, much to be learned, not only of it, but from it. 



Having, two days before we saw the land, found soundings at the 

 depth of sixty fathoms, and perceived the influence of the mighty stream 



