ll Europe, that this blind and inept confidence was the sole cause
of the loss of the Medusa frigate, as well as of all the crimes
consequent upon it.

[Footnote 2: This Society, which was so ill named _Philanthropic_,
was composed of sixty individuals of all nations, among whom
figured Hebrard, Correard,[3] Richefort, &c. They had obtained
from government a free passage, and authority to go and cultivate
the peninsula of Cape Verd; but that new colony afterwards ended
like that of Champ-d'Asile.]

[Footnote 3: Not that Correard, the coadjutor of Savigny,
mentioned in the Author's preface. _Trans._]

Towards three in the afternoon, those officers who had gone on shore in
the morning, returned on board loaded with vegetables, fruits, and
flowers. They laughed heartily at the manoeuvres that had been going on
during their absence, which doubtless did not please the captain, who
flattered himself he had already found in his pilot Richefort _a good
and able seaman_: such were his words. At four in the afternoon we took
a southerly direction. M. Richefort then beaming with exultation for
having, as he said, saved the Medusa from certain shipwreck, continued
to give his pernicious counsels to Captain Lachaumareys, persuading him
he had been often employed to explore the shores of Africa, and that he
was perfectly well acquainted with the Arguin Bank. The journals of the
29th and 30th afford nothing very remarkable.

The hot winds from the desert of Sahara began to be felt, which told us
we approached the tropic; indeed, the sun at noon seemed suspended
perpendicularly above our heads, a phenomenon which few among us had
ever seen.

On the 1st of July, we recognised Cape Bojador, and then saw the shores
of Sahara. Towards ten in the morning, they set about the frivolous
ceremony which the sailors have invented for the purpose of exacting
something from those passengers who have never crossed the line. During
the ceremony, the frigate doubled Cape Barbas, hastening to its
destruction. Captain Lachaumareys very good humouredly presided at this
species of baptism, whilst his dear Richefort promenaded the forecastle,
and looked with indifference upon a shore bristling with dangers.
However that may be, all passed on well; nay, it may be even said that
the farce was well played off. But the route which we pursued soon made
us forget the short-lived happiness we had experienced. Every one began