stretched in a
palanquin, or shaded by an umbrella on the back of an elephant.
Soldiers and sailors, whose duty exposes them at all hours, either on
a march or in boats, are often struck down by the heat, and sigh with
all their hearts for the bracing frosts of higher latitudes. But those
who have the means of bringing to bear on their comforts the
innumerable contrivances which the ingenuity of wealth has devised in
the East, indeed, make its climate not only bearable, but one of the
most enjoyable in the world.

As we sailed along on our voyage to India, gradually slipping down
from the high to the low latitudes, the sun crept up higher and higher
every day towards the zenith, while the thermometer, of course, rose
likewise. What was most agreeable in this change from cold to warmth
was the little difference between the temperature of the day and that
of the night. As we approached the equator, the thermometer fell only
from 82 deg. in the day-time to 79 deg. or 80 deg. at night, which, on deck, was
delightful. We did not, of course, come to this high temperature all
at once; for on the 6th of May, the day after we passed directly under
the sun, the average of the twenty-four hours was 73 deg., and at night
69 deg. and 70 deg..

It is not to be imagined that everyone was pleased with these changes;
for on board ship, as on shore, there exist discontented spirits,
whose acquired habit it is to find fault with the existing state of
things, be these what they may. To such cantankerous folks a growl of
misery would really seem to be the great paradoxical happiness of
their lives, and, in the absence of real hardship, it is part of your
thorough-bred growler to prophesy. I have seen a middy of this stamp
glad to find, on coming below, that some insignificant portion of his
dinner really had been devoured by his hungry messmates, while he
himself was keeping his watch on deck.

"I am used worse than a dog!" he would cry, secretly delighted to have
gained the luxury of a grievance, "I can't even get a basin of
pease-soup put by for me; it's an infernal shame, I'll cut the
service!"

The diversity of climate on an Indian voyage furnishes capital nuts
for these perturbed spirits. It is first too cold, then too hot; then
there is not wind enough; then it blows too fresh in the squalls:
by-and-bye the nights are discovered to be abominably close and
sultry, and in the day the fierce flaming downright heat of the sun is
sti