24 



VOYAGE TO RIO. 



dark; those which adhered to it still emitted a 

 pale ray of light, like a spark not quite extin- 

 guished. They appeared in the towel to be 

 little black specks, not so large as a pin's head. 



We shall soon reach the line. We have 

 already outstript the sun on his return to the 

 southern hemisphere, and the climate begins 

 to be insupportably hot. The glass in the 

 shade is at 86°. 



Sept. 1st. — For a week we had S.W. winds 

 in our teeth, with a head sea ; which last ac- 

 companiment, as usual, often sent me to my 

 cot in the daytime. The East-Indiaman has 

 disappeared for the last week. I conclude she 

 thought we were going to cross the line too 

 near the coast of Brazil ; which is the modern 

 man-of-war method of making a passage, to 

 avoid the calms which prevail to the eastward. 

 We met an American man-of-war schooner, 



