red miles, which gave sufficient leisure for the discussion of the
subject in all its bearings. The conversations were amicable, and the
weather continuing mild, and the wind standing, they were renewed each
afternoon, when the vessels closed, as if expressly to admit of the
dialogue. In all this time, five days altogether, it was farther
ascertained that the difference in sailing between the Twin Lions, as the
sailors now began to call the two schooners, was barely perceptible. If
anything, it was slightly in favour of the Vineyard craft, though there
yet remained many of the vicissitudes of the seas, in which to make the
trial. While this uncertainty as to the course prevailed, the low land
appeared directly ahead, when Daggett consented to pass it to the
southward, keeping the cluster in sight, however, as they went steadily on
towards the southward and eastward.

Chapter XI.

"With glossy skin, and dripping mane,
And reeling limbs, and reeking flank,
The wild steed's sinewy nerves still strain
Up the repelling bank."

Mazeppa.

Roswell Gardiner felt as if he could breathe more freely when they had run
the Summers Group fairly out of sight, and the last hummock had sunk into
the waves of the west. He was now fairly quit of America, and hoped to see
no more of it, until he made the well-known rock that points the way into
that most magnificent of all the havens of the earth, the bay of Rio de
Janeiro. Travellers dispute whether the palm ought to be given to this
port, or to those of Naples and Constantinople. Each, certainly, has its
particular claims to surpassing beauty, which ought to be kept in view in
coming to a decision. Seen from its outside, with its minarets, and Golden
Horn, and Bosphorus, Constantinople is, probably, the most glorious spot
on earth. Ascend its mountains, and overlook the gulfs of Salerno and
Gaeta, as well as its own waters, the _Campugna Felici_ and the memorials
of the past, all seen in the witchery of an Italian atmosphere, and the
mind becomes perfectly satisfied that nothing equal is to be found
elsewhere; but enter the bay of Rio, and take the whole of the noble
panorama in at a glance, and even the experienced traveller is staggered
with the stupendous as well as bewitching character of the loveliness that
meets his eye. Witchery is a charm that peculiarly belongs to Italy, as
all must feel who have ever been brought within its influence; but it is a