that night at least remain in the Lion, continued the ship
under sail. Our Spaniards tugged away pretty lustily at the
oars for about two hours; but, perceiving we were already
out in the open sea, without appealing to advance in the least
upon the ship, they a t length began to talk of returning. By
way of encouragement, some of us took a spell at the oar,
while others chinked the dollars; and in this manner we kept
jogging on for about an hour longer, when one of them, looking
stedfastly at the moon, declared it was going to blow a hurricane,
and that they must immediately make the best of
their way to the shore. Nothing could be more embarrassing
than our present situation. The Lion was now also under
way, and fully as distant from us as the Hindostán. The
portentous appearance of .the moon seemed completely to
have dissolved the charm which the music of the dollars for a
time produced. I t was now near midnight; the sky became
murky, and the sea much agitated. Under such circumstances,
we were just on the point of concluding with the
Spaniards that it would not be very adviséable to encounter a
storm in an open boat, in the middle of the night, a t the distance
of ten or twelve miles from the nearest shore, when the
only thing happened that could possibly have relieved us from
the awkward dilemma in which we were placed:—a dead
calm ensued. Still we were at a considerable distance from
the ship; but shaking the dollars had now its proper effect,
and the exertions they procured brought us at length safely
on board.
Within the limits of the trade winds, which on the northern
side of the line extend sometimes to the 28th parallel of latitude,
the smoothness of the sea places the passenger so much
at his ease, that he now finds himself compelled to seek for
some kind of employment to pass away the time. Among
the few active pursuits of which the situation admits, that of
fishing naturally presents itself. The motion communicated
to the water by so huge a body as a ship never fails to bring
around it a great number and variety of the inhabitants of the
deep, who accompany it night and day with unwearied perseverance,
sometimes far beyond their accustomed climate.
The most beautiful fish that swims the ocean is the dolphin,
(the Coryphazna hippurus,) of which we caught several in this
part of the voyage, both with the hook and with the fork;
not so much for the sake of feasting the appetite, for they are
but indifferent food, as of indulging the eye in the cruel delight
of observing the exquisitely beautiful but evanescent
tints of colour that pass in succession over the surface of their
bodies, in the agonies of dying. The golden hue of its back,
when first drawn out of the water, which obtained it the
name of Dorado, changing into all the colours of the rainbow,
infinitely combined and varied, and seen differently from different
points of view, may be reckoned among the first of those
brilliant but fleeting appearances with which the economy of
nature sometimes gratifies the'eye, but which no pen can accurately
describe, nor pencil delineate. The ravenous shark,
the tyger of the ocean, is, like this beast of prey, generally
observed prowling alone. He seldom refuses the bait, and is
not therefore difficult to be taken; but as the stench from liig
body is jso intolerable, his carcase is rarely hoisted upon deck.
But the most common of' the' voracious fish, that in shoals
accompany ships through this part of the ocean, are two
i 2