- bow at noon, which gave to the waves all the changeful
hues of the camelion.
2nd.—Therm. 72°, lat. 26°. Find it necessary to seek shade under the awning all day, and at the second and third watch of the night to take an air-bath, quite undressed; when I saw Venus, the {14} bright morning-star, lighting the sky and sea like a moon, casting a long broad shadow over the bosom of the wave, and yielding a light nearly equal to the moon in her first quarter. Being now nearly in the tropic of Capricorn, all the luminaries of Heaven blazed with a light and brilliancy quite novel to me. Horrible dissatisfaction openly reigns amongst the crew, because hard worked and half-starved. The captain, in reply, kindly called them damned gluttons, and bid them go and fare better if they could. He complained of my talking to them, a condescension on my part which, he said, teaches them insubordination, and a liberty taken by me not allowable in a cabin passenger. Saw many flying-fish, winged as a bird, and also several beautiful tropical birds, a species of sea-gull, having sharp long tails, formed of only one quill, and called by sailors Neptune's children.
Our brutish captain this day beat and bruised the poor steward with a thick rope about his broken back, head, and face, until a torrent of red blood gushed from his thick black nose. For what? Because the poor fellow had been smoking, and could not by washing make his black face white!
5th.—Therm. 78°, lat. 22°, long. 40°, and now midway between London and Charleston. Saw a fine whale, reflecting in its course from the sun all the hues of the rainbow; and a large flock of {15} flying-fish, bright and silvery, and at a distance easily mistaken for the feathered tribe.
