INTRODUCTION. 
11 
self alternately preached Christ to the ship’s company, 
for the captain was one Avho felt it an honour to he 
permitted to convey to his men the glad tidings of a 
Saviour’s love. 
Thus days and weeks passed on, our little vessel steering 
her course westward. We soon entered the Trade 
Winds, and then all was well ; for a captain feels, as it 
were, on sure groimd, when he has “ got the trades.” The 
weather was beautiful, the breeze not too strong, and we 
had all we could desire. Time in the “trades,” is 
Ijeguiled among the sailors by setting up the rigging, 
tarring the same, painting the boats, mending the old 
sails, looking up the stores, and sorting up every odd job, 
that Satan may find no mischief for idle hands to do. 
While the sailors are thus engaged, the passengers 
are busy with the children and books, now and then 
taking a passive part in the operations of the crew, or 
rising from their somewhat lazy position to see the “ log 
heaved,” to satisfy one’s curiosity, as well as to relieve 
the undisturbed quiet, and know how many knots she is 
going. Occasionally, a scene of excitement is witnessed ; 
a shoal of porpoises, or of dolphins, are, in the case of 
the former, turning most clumsy smnmersets around 
the bows of the vessel, or in that of the latter, though 
darting their arrowy forms in the most unlooked for 
direction — now here, now there, then yonder — all the 
while presenting an engrossing and tantalizing mark 
to the harpoon, which is firmly grasped by some strong 
liand, and guided by a quick eye, that one of these same 
