108 



A VOYAGE TO 



decks were kept wet and continually covered with 

 awnings. An expression of despondency was seen 

 in the countenances of all, while the vessel was rolling 

 about on the heavy sullen waves. We were contin- 

 ually watching every quarter of the compass, and en- 

 deavoring to catch once more a glimpse of hope from 

 every breath of air scarcely sufficient to cause the 

 sails to flap against the masts. I called to recollection 

 the celebrated description of a calm at sea by Mar- 

 montel, but found it correct only as to the effect upon 

 the mind.* 



We were at length favored with occasional light 

 winds, which drifted rather than wafted us towards 

 the equator. Commodore Sinclair observes, ^^had I 

 been aware of circumstances which occurred, and 

 which were beyond human wisdom to foresee, I am 

 under a belief that I could have shortened my passage 

 fifteen or twenty days. I was in the first instance 

 straining every nerve to gain easting before leaving the 

 variables, which had been found so difficult to effect 

 in the trade winds. I was driven in longitude forty- 

 three degrees west, as far south as latitude twenty- 

 nine degrees north, when fearing to enter the trades 

 with so little easting, I tacked and stood north with 

 the wind heavy from east north-east, and after getting 

 as far north again as latitude thirty-four, I got a heavy 



*I allude to his Incas. Marmontel represents clear skies, 

 fine starry nights, an extensive liorizon, and a sea as smooth 

 as a mirror, upon which the vessel is immoveably fixed. He is not 

 correct, in this, but he is correct in the passage where he says, "con- 

 sterne et places d'effroi Us demandent au del des orages et des tem^ 

 pete" Struck with consternation they pray to heaven for storms 

 and tempests. 



