ndians in past times
tended, in too many instances, to confirm. Off the southern extremity
of Ceylon, the ship was again becalmed for several days; but the
tedium of this interval was relieved, not only by the ordinary sea
incidents of the capture of a shark and the appearance of a whale,
(the zoological distinctions between which and the true fishes are
stated by the khan with great correctness,) but by the occurrence of a
mutiny on board an English vessel in company, which was fortunately
quelled by the exertions of the captain of the Edinburgh.

"The spicy gales of Ceylon," blowing off the coast to the distance, as
stated, of fifty miles, (an extremely moderate range when compared
with the accounts of some other travellers,) at last brought on their
wings the grateful announcement of the termination of the calm; but
before quitting the vicinity of this famous island, (more celebrated
in eastern story under the name of Serendib,) the khan gives some
notices of the legends connected with its history, which show a more
extended acquaintance with Hindu literature than the Moslems in India
in general take the trouble of acquiring. Among the rest he alludes to
the epic of the Ramayuna, and the bridge built by Rama (or as he calls
him, Rajah Ram Chunder) for the passage of the monkey army and their
redoubled general, Huniman, from the Indian continent into the island,
in order to deliver from captivity Seeta, the wife of the hero. The
wind still continuing favourable, the ship quickly passed the equator,
and the pole-star was no longer visible--"a proof of the earth's
sphericity which I was glad to have had an opportunity of seeing;" and
they left, at a short distance to the right, the islands of Mauritius
and Bourbon, "which are not far from the great island of Madagascar,
where the faithful turn their faces to the north when they pray, as
they turn them to the west in India," the _kiblah_, or point of
direction, being in both cases the kaaba, or temple of Mekka. They
were now approaching the latitude of the Cape; and our voyager was
astonished by the countless multitudes of sea-birds which surrounded
the ship, and particularly by the giant bulk of the albatrosses,
"which I was told remained day and night on the ocean, repairing to
the coast of Africa only at the period of incubation." The Cape of
Storms, however, as it was originally named by Vasco de Gama, did not
fail on this occasion to keep up its established characte