60 
REMINISCENCES OF A VO A AGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 
British shore, and through the Bay of Biscay, with very little canvas, 
only the foresail and fore and main-topsails close reefed. 
On the eighth day after leaving England, we had approached the 
latitude of Madeira, which island the captain had resolved to call at; 
but on opening his sealed orders was peremptorily directed to proceed 
to the Cape of Good Hope without delay, with despatches for the 
Dutch Governor. 
Before arriving at this latitude, the air was sensibly warmer. The 
gooseberry plants were first in motion, and in a few days after were in 
flower, but these quickly dropped ofl*. 
The north-east breeze, or rather gale of wind, which wafted us from 
England, carried us to the equator, which we crossed (with all the 
usual and ridiculous formalities) exactly that day month, from the 
Land’s-End : an extraordinary quick passage. Here we were be¬ 
calmed for a few days ; and here the heat was oppressive, usually 
from 85 to 90 degrees of Fahrenheit. All the exposed plants were in 
full leaf, and had made shoots two or three inches in length; and 
though the roots were kept regularly watered, and the tops sprinkled 
every evening, the growth was feeble, the colour of the foliage pale, 
and in size diminutive. 
A calm on the line, in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean, the clear 
blue sky thinly sprinkled with white tufty clouds, the blazing sun, 
the sea as smooth as glass, forming a mirror eighty miles in diameter, 
without an object on its surface to attract the eye, save, perhaps, the 
sudden lunge of the dolphin in pursuit of the flying fish, which rise in 
shoals before him, or occasionally the heavy form of the stupidly 
audacious and prowling shark by the ship’s side; all these circum¬ 
stances, seen and felt for the first time, can scarcely be described in 
sober prose. They are most interesting to every mind previously 
acquainted with the theory of geography, meteorology, astronomy, and 
navigation: and, besides the daily occurrences among a jovial and 
healthy crew, of between three and four hundred persons, made our 
little floating world far from being either an irksome prison, or dis¬ 
agreeable abode. 
The favouring south-east trade wind bore us south-westward towards 
the coast of Brazil, and doubling the small uninhabited, though beau¬ 
tifully verdant, island of San Trinidada, on the South American shore, 
gave a fresh departure for the Cape of Good Hope. 
The plants during the whole time we were crossing the torrid zone, 
were constantly excited beyond their powers, and we need hardly 
explain to our readers the cause. So recently transplanted, they had 
not stamina to withstand the exhausting heat, nor could they enjoy 
