ers seen through a good telescope, with the
additional attraction of ever-changing form and dancing motion.

Dec. 23d.-Fine red sunrise; the island we left last evening barely
visible behind us. The Goram prau about a mile south of us. They have
no compass, yet they have kept a very true course during the night.
Our owner tells me they do it by the swell of the sea, the direction of
which they notice at sunset, and sail by it during the night. In these
seas they are never (in fine weather) more than two days without seeing
land. Of course adverse winds or currents sometimes carry them away,
but they soon fall in with some island, and there are always some old
sailors on board who know it, and thence take a new course. Last night
a shark about five feet long was caught, and this morning it was cut up
and cooked. In the afternoon they got another, and I had a little fried,
and found it firm and dry, but very palatable. In the evening the sun
set in a heavy bank of clouds, which, as darkness came on, assumed a
fearfully black appearance. According to custom, when strong wind or
rain is expected, our large sails-were furled, and with their yards let
down on deck, and a small square foresail alone kept up. The great mat
sails are most awkward things to manage in rough weather. The yards
which support them are seventy feet long, and of course very heavy, and
the only way to furl them being to roll up the sail on the boom, it is
a very dangerous thing to have them standing when overtaken by a squall.
Our crew; though numerous enough for a vessel of 700 instead of one of
70 tons, have it very much their own way, and there seems to be seldom
more than a dozen at work at a time. When anything important is to
be done, however, all start up willingly enough, but then all think
themselves at liberty to give their opinion, and half a dozen voices are
heard giving orders, and there is such a shrieking and confusion that it
seems wonderful anything gets done at all.

Considering we have fifty men of several tribes and tongues onboard,
wild, half-savage looking fellows, and few of them feeling any of the
restraints of morality or education, we get on wonderfully well. There
is no fighting or quarrelling, as there would certainly be among the
same number of Europeans with as little restraint upon their actions,
and there is scarcely any of that noise and excitement which might be
expected. In fine weather the greater part of them are qui