211 
were pretty gay and cheerful, and drank till tolerably late. Se¬ 
veral gentlemen got head-aches, and became sea-sick; and many 
laughable scenes took place. I stole into my state-room, in or¬ 
der to avoid similar mishap. 
On the 5th of July we had the good fortune to meet a large 
whale, which spouted the water high above him in all directions. 
He did not, however, honour us a long time with his presence, 
but pursued his course, and we ours, though with much greater 
velocity; for at the usual meridian observation, we found our 
latitude 44° 9' and our longitude 39° 38'. In the morning we 
had little wind, but when towards evening it freshened, we made 
from eight to nine miles an hour. Up to this period our voyage 
had been most prosperous, continually fair wind and the sea very 
smooth. During three days we had seen a brig at the distance 
of some miles from us, which was going on the same course, but 
our ship being a better sailer, we left it to-day considerably behind. 
On the 7th of July, weather dull, with occasional rain; which 
rendered it cold and uncomfortable. Latitude 46° 50', longitude 
30° 31'; wind towards afternoon rather strong, sea running very 
high with the wind in our stern; this increased the motion of our 
ship, which was constantly pitching from one side to the other. 
What was not properly fastened gave way. This gave rise to many 
droll scenes. The ladies, who were unaccustomed to this new un¬ 
pleasantness attending a sea voyage, became frightened; they 
conceived that danger was near, and we had considerable trouble 
in allaying their fears. One of them entreated in the most af¬ 
fecting manner, several gentlemen, who were whiling away their 
time at a game of whist, and others who were engaged at back¬ 
gammon, not to bring down the vengeance of heaven, and not to 
increase the danger that surrounded us, by sinful card-playing and 
unholy back-gammon! But there was no danger whatever to 
apprehend, though the rolling of the vessel was unpleasant; the 
passengers scarcely knew where to go, or what to do, for it was 
even impossible to sleep, inasmuch as the shocking rolling 
threatened us with a fall from our beds. 
We pursued our course swiftly during the 8th of July. Lati¬ 
tude 47° 58', longitude 25 ° 10'. In the forenoon the sea was 
calmer, but during the afternoon, and particularly in the evening, 
it ran so high that the ship pitched more than yesterday. The 
weather was, during the whole of the day, unpleasant, cloudy, 
and rainy, and it was with the greatest difficulty that we kept 
our feet on the wet deck. In the evening, I observed again in the 
sea the phosphoric light; some parts of the water sparkled like 
fireflies.* We overtook a brig, apparently bound on our course; 
411 [This light is emitted by molluscous animals, which are exceedingly abun¬ 
dant in some parts of the ocean. They are also seen to great advantage during 
the night, in the Chesapeake bay,]— Trans. 
