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that more fellows sleep. Perhaps a whale, a shark, a 
shoal of porpoises or flying fish, or a sail, gives us five 
minutes' interest. Dinner is ready at the unearthly hour 
of 5-0, while the sun is still baking the saloon ; and how 
hot the plates are in the tropics, and how cold in the 
channel, and the same with the soup and other eatables — 
so much more sensible to have given us a cold feed, if they 
couldn't manage a hot one, later in the evening. After 
dinner on deck again, and this is the pleasantest time of 
the twenty-four hours. At 7 o'clock there is some tea and 
toast for those that like it in the saloon, and then people 
try to amuse themselves till bed time. The lights are put 
out in the saloon at 10-0, and in the cabins half an hour 
later ; and so another day at sea has been got through 
somehow. 
December 13th. We crossed the line, and had a most 
refreshing downpour of rain — more like a sheet of water 
falling than rain drops. Next day, Sunday, there was no 
service again, as I conclude the crew were all supposed to 
be busy, preparing for our expected arrival at Cape Coast 
Castle to-morrow; and last Sunday the captain said he 
had a cold and couldn't read. Engines going at half 
speed, or we should arrive before daylight, and the place 
was new to the captain. 
Decewiber 15th. When we got up in the morning, found 
the ship at anchor, and close by were lying five or six 
men-of-war and transports, with provisions and stores for 
the troops who had arrived ; but most of them had been 
sent off again for a cruise, as arrangements were not 
forward enough for landing them, the road to the Prah 
not being quite completed. Several of the officers came 
on board from the different ships, and both they and the 
boats' crews looked pale and sickly from the climate. 
They seemed, too, on short commons, getting little or 
