nnounced
by the barking of dogs, but by the barking of trees!*

(*Footnote. The trees in the vicinity of houses are generally barked to
obtain a covering for the roofs.)

Westerly winds carried us into the South-East trade by the 13th, in
latitude 22 degrees 30 minutes South four hundred miles from the
North-west Cape, when our course was directed for the Mauritius. We found
the trade very squally, and on one or two occasions managed to screw as
much as eleven knots out of the old craft.

RODRIGUE ISLAND.

A little after noon on the 27th we saw Rodrigue Island sooner than we
expected, in consequence of our finding it placed seven miles to the
westward of its true position, even with reference to the meridian of the
Mauritius. Our observations, in passing to southward, made the eastern
end of it 5 degrees 59 minutes East of Port Louis, and 63 degrees 31 3/4
East of Greenwich, latitude 19 degrees 42 minutes South. I was rather
surprised to find this error in the position of Rodrigue, as it is quite
a finger-post for ships on their voyage from India to Great Britain. It
trends east and west for seventeen miles, and is in width about six. For
a volcanic island its features are not very remarkable; the highest part
is a peak or excrescence, 1700 feet high, rising towards the eastern end
out of a rather level ridge.

On the morning of the 29th, the high land of the Mauritius was seen
breaking through the mass of clouds. Passing round the north end of the
island, in the evening we reached Port Louis, where we found a French
man-of-war that had just brought in the crew of a vessel foundered at
sea. Their escape had been one of the most remarkable on record. The ship
was from Liverpool, and was rounding the south-eastern point of Africa
with a strong north-west wind, when she sprang a leak, which increased so
fast, that the crew were ultimately obliged to abandon her and take to
the boats. The sea was so great that they were compelled to run before
the wind, with the prospect only of prolonging their lives for a brief
space, no land lying in that direction.

PROVIDENTIAL ESCAPE.

Providentially, the morning following they found themselves alongside a
French frigate; but the boats were so low in the water that for some time
they escaped observation, and were nearly passed. At length, by waving a
lady's shawl in the air, they attracted the attention of the Frenchmen,
and were taken on board, and treated with an attentive k