to windward, declared he "could smell it plainly, and
that the smell resembled beefsteak and onions!"

To this, after a long snuff, the mate assented adding that beef was
abundant in Brazil, and the people were notoriously fond of garlic!
Collins afterwards acknowledged that he could smell nothing, but was
bound to have as good a nose as the second mate!

Upon the strength of this additional testimony Mr. Fairfield called
the captain, who snuffed vigorously, but without effect. He could smell
neither land, nor "beefsteak and onions." He was also incredulous in
regard to our proximity to the shore, but very properly concluded, as
it was so near daylight, to heave the brig to, with her head off shore,
until we could test the correctness of the second mate's nose!

After waiting impatiently a couple of hours we could get glimpses along
the southern horizon, and, to the surprise of Captain Page, and the
triumph of the second mate, the land was visible in the shape of a long,
low, hummocky beach, and not more than three leagues distant. When Mr.
Fairfield first scented it we were probably not more than four or five
miles from the shore, towards which we were steering on a diagonal
course.

The land we fell in with was some three or four degrees to windward of
Maranham. On the following day we entered the mouth of the river, and
anchored opposite the city.

Before we had been a week in port a large English ship, bound to
Maranham, went ashore in the night on the very beach which would have
wrecked the Clarissa, had it not been for the extraordinary acuteness
o Mr. Fairfield's nose, and became a total wreck. The officers and
crew remained near the spot for several days to save what property they
could, and gave a lamentable account of their sufferings. They were
sheltered from the heat of the sun by day, and the dews and rains by
night, by tents rudely constructed from the ship's sails. But these
tents could not protect the men from the sand-flies and mosquitoes, and
their annoyance from those insects must have been intolerable. The poor
fellows shed tears when they told the tale of their trials, and
pointed to the ulcers on their limbs as evidence of the ferocity of the
mosquitoes!

It appeared, also, that their provisions fell short, and they would have
suffered from hunger were it not that the coast, which was but sparsely
inhabited, abounded in wild turkeys, as they said, of which they shot
several, which furnished