each, and were unfit for duty.

It is pleasant enough to take the wheel for an hour or two, or even for a
watch, but when it comes to be for every alternate four hours, it is
utterly wearisome. We set our black men to steer, showing them which arm
of the compass needle was to be kept towards the vessel's head, and soon
three of them could manage very well, and they only needed watching. In
going up the East Coast to take advantage of the current of one hundred
miles a day, we would fain have gone into the Juba or Webbe River, the
mouth of which is only 15 minutes south of the line, but we were too
shorthanded. We passed up to about ten degrees north of the Equator, and
then steamed out from the coast. Here Maury's wind chart showed that the
calm-belt had long been passed, but we were in it still; and, instead of
a current carrying us north, we had a contrary current which bore us
every day four miles to the south. We steamed as long as we dared,
knowing as we did that we must use the engines on the coast of India.

After losing many days tossing on the silent sea, with innumerable
dolphins, flying-fish, and sharks around us, we had six days of strong
breezes, then calms again tried our patience; and the near approach of
that period, "the break of the monsoon," in which it was believed no boat
could live, made us sometimes think our epitaph would be "Left Zanzibar
on 30th April, 1864, and never more heard of." At last, in the beginning
of June, the chronometers showed that we were near the Indian coast. The
black men believed it was true because we told them it was so, but only
began to dance with joy when they saw sea-weed and serpents floating
past. These serpents are peculiar to these parts, and are mentioned as
poisonous in the sailing directions. We ventured to predict that we
should see land next morning, and at midday the high coast hove in sight,
wonderfully like Africa before the rains begin. Then a haze covered all
the land, and a heavy swell beat towards it. A rock was seen, and a
latitude showed it to be the Choule rock. Making that a fresh starting-
point, we soon found the light-ship, and then the forest of masts loomed
through the haze in Bombay harbour. We had sailed over 2500 miles.

FOOTNOTES

{1} A remedy composed of from six to eight grains of resin of jalap, the
same of rhubarb, and three each of calomel and quinine, made up into four
pills, with tincture of cardamoms, usually r