260 REMINISCENCES OF A VOYAGE TO AND FROM CHINA. 
this rather populous spot. We met with no new plants; but Mr. H., 
who was a good entomologist and collector, captured some splendid 
insects: among the rest, we remember particularly an enormous green 
spider. Many tropical plants were well cultivated here; among others., 
indigo appeared to be a staple article. The proprietors were Dutch 
settlers. Here we met two or three Spanish and Portuguese Catholic 
missionaries, whose destitution and squalid appearance was truly piti¬ 
able. “ Pour Vamour de Dieu,” they said, they submitted to every 
kind of privation, and could but with difficulty exist in a place rich in 
vegetable products certainly, but insalubrious, and where they could 
make but few converts. 
Sailing from thence about the 9th or 10th of April, we steered a 
nearly south-west course towards the Cape of Good Hope. The 
voyage through among these Oriental Isles which we had just left, was 
most interesting; every island, from the exuberance of vegetation with 
which it was clothed, seemed a paradise. The clear deep blue of the 
unclouded sky, and the equally deep tint of the sea in those parts, 
added to its extreme transparency, enables the eye to explore the coral 
rocks of many various colours, and the fish disporting among them at a 
great depth. But such placid seasons are of short duration, for soon 
vast masses of electric clouds are formed, lightnings flash, and thunder 
rolls. The sudden squall, if unheeded, rends the canvass from the 
yard, and drives the ship from her course; but in a few minutes, 
perhaps, all is again calm and serene. 
In this “ war of elements,” with the heat averaging about eighty- 
eight degrees, our already enfeebled plants became still more feeble ; 
and happy, for their sakes, did we feel while bounding away from the 
excitable incidents of heat and humidity so common in that part of our 
voyage. 
When we had proceeded as far as the thirty-second degree of south 
latitude, several of the camellias and magnolias were dead nearly down 
to the graft, and many had lost their leaves; but we were pleased to 
observe that some of them began to produce shoots from the lower parts 
of the branches, which we considered a good sign, it being a proof that 
the roots were in action ; and if they could continue to supply as much 
moisture from the soil as was exhaled by the warm air, the plants 
might eventually survive. Here we also observed that the youngest 
plants suffered most—those having the most substantial stems and 
branches bearing the changes of weather without so much injury. 
In passing the isles of Rodrigues, Mauritius, and Bourbon, we were 
visited by some heavy gales of wind, which dispersed the fleet and 
delayed our progress. In these cases the seamanship of the com- 
