light on, like a conscious beauty going
forth conquering and to conquer. I doubt the crew grumbled and d----d
a little under their breath, for the process was tedious; yet it was
not only a fad, but necessary, and the deck-officer who habitually
neglected it might possibly rise to an emergency, but was scarcely
otherwise worth his salt. In my humble judgment, he had better have
worn a frock-coat unbuttoned.

Occupation in plenty was not the only solace of a morning watch; at
least in the trades. While the men were washing their clothes, the
midshipman of the watch, amid the exhilaration of his coffee, and with
the cool sea-water careering over his bare feet, had ample leisure to
watch the break of day: the gradual lighting up of the zenith, the
rosy tints gathering and growing upon the tiny, pearly trade-clouds of
which I have spoken, the blue of the water gradually revealing itself,
laughing with white-caps, like the Psalmist's valleys of corn; until
at last the sun appeared, never direct from the sea, but from these
white cloud banks which extend less than five degrees above it. Such a
scene presents itself day after day, day after day, monotonous but
never wearisome, to a vessel running down the trades; that is,
steering from east to west, with fixed, fair breeze, as I have more
than once had the happiness to do. Then, as the saying was, a
fortnight passed without touching brace or tack, because no change of
wind; a slight exaggeration, for frequent squalls required the canvas
to be handled, but substantially true in impression. Balmy weather and
a steady gait, rarely more than seven or eight knots--less than two
hundred miles a day; but who would be in haste to quit such
conditions, where the sun rose astern daily with the joy of a giant
running his course, bringing assurance of prosperity, and sank to rest
ahead smiling, again behind the dimpling clouds which he tinged like
mother-of-pearl.

Such was not our lot in the _Congress_, for we were bound south,
across the trades. This, with some bad luck, brought us close-hauled,
that we might pass the equator nothing to the westward of thirty
degrees of west longitude; otherwise we might fall to leeward of Cape
St. Roque. This ominous phrase meant that we might be so far to the
westward that the southeast trades, when reached, would not let the
ship pass clear of this easternmost point of Brazil on one stretch;
that we would strike the coast north of it and have to be