Also, I Saw A Whale Spout Like A Very Tiny Garden Fountain.
The Southern Cross Is A Delusion, And The Tropical Moon No Better
Than A Parisian One, At Present.
We are now in lat.
31 degrees
about, and have been driven halfway to Rio by this sweet southern
breeze. I have never yet sat on deck without a cloth jacket or
shawl, and the evenings are chilly. I no longer believe in
tropical heat at sea. Even during the calm it was not so hot as I
have often felt it in England - and that, under a vertical sun. The
ship that nearly ran us and herself down, must have kept no look-
out, and refused to answer our hail. She is supposed to be from
Glasgow by her looks. We may speak a ship and send letters on
board; so excuse scrawl and confusion, it is so difficult to write
at all.
30th August. - About 25 degrees S. lat. and very much to the west.
We have had all sorts of weather - some beautiful, some very rough,
but always contrary winds - and got within 200 miles of the coast of
South America. We now have a milder breeze from the SOFT N.E.,
after a BITTER S.W., with Cape pigeons and mollymawks (a small
albatross), not to compare with our gulls. We had private
theatricals last night - ill acted, but beautifully got up as far as
the sailors were concerned. I did not act, as I did not feel well
enough, but I put a bit for Neptune into the Prologue and made the
boatswain's mate speak it, to make up for the absence of any
shaving at the Line, which the captain prohibited altogether; I
thought it hard the men should not get their 'tips'.
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