se, objurgatory,
laudatory, reflective volume might be made, entitled, "Meditations at
the Mast-head!"

When I found myself comfortably established in my aery domicile, I first
looked down on the vessel below with a feeling nearly akin to pity, then
around me with a positive feeling of rapture, and at length above me
with a heart-warming glow of adoration. Perched up at a height so
great, the decks of the frigate looked extremely long and narrow; and
the foreshortened view one has of those upon it makes them look but
little bigger or more important than so many puppets. Beneath me I saw
the discontented author of my elevation, and of "A Tour up and down the
Rio de la Plate," skipping actively here and there to avoid the
splashing necessary in washing the decks. I could not help comparing
the annoyance of this involuntary dance with the after-guard, this
_croissez_ with clattering buckets, and _dos a dos_ing with wet swabs,
with my comfortable and commanding recumbency upon the cross-trees. I
looked down upon Lieutenant Silva, and pitied him. I looked around me,
and my heart was exceeding glad. The upper rim of the sun was dallying
with a crimson cloud, whilst the greater part of his disc was still
below the well-defined deep-blue horizon. All above him to the zenith
was chequered with small vapours, layer over layer, like the scales of a
breastplate of burnished gold. The little waves were mantling,
dimpling, and seemed playfully striving to emulate the intenser glories
of the heavens above. They now flashed into living light, now assumed
the blushing hue of a rosebud, and here and there wreathed up into a
diminutive foam, mocking the smile of youth when she shows her white
teeth between her beauty-breathing lips. As I swung aloft, with a
motion gentle as that of the cradled infant, and looked out upon the
splendours beneath and around me, my bosom swelled with the most
rapturous emotions. Everywhere, as far as my eye could reach, the
transparent and beryl-dyed waters were speckled with white sails,
actually "blushing rosy red" with the morning beams. Far, far astern,
hull down, were the huge dull sailers, spreading all their
studding-sails to the wind, reminding me of frightened swans with
expanded wings. Conspicuous among these were the two men-of-war brigs,
obliquely sailing now here and then there, and ever and anon firing a
gun, whose mimic thunder came with melodious resonance over the waters,
whilst