. Nay, when we consider
that the Carthaginians came from the Phoenicians who are supposed to have
produced the first mariners, we may probably see the true reason of
the adage, and it may open a field of very curious discoveries to the
antiquarian.

We were, however, too eager to pursue our voyage to suffer anything we
left behind us to interrupt our happiness, which, indeed, many agreeable
circumstances conspired to advance. The weather was inexpressibly
pleasant, and we were all seated on the deck, when our canvas began to
swell with the wind. We had likewise in our view above thirty other sail
around us, all in the same situation. Here an observation occurred to
me, which, perhaps, though extremely obvious, did not offer itself
to every individual in our little fleet: when I perceived with what
different success we proceeded under the influence of a superior power
which, while we lay almost idle ourselves, pushed us forward on our
intended voyage, and compared this with the slow progress which we had
made in the morning, of ourselves, and without any such assistance,
I could not help reflecting how often the greatest abilities lie
wind-bound as it were in life; or, if they venture out and attempt to
beat the seas, they struggle in vain against wind and tide, and, if they
have not sufficient prudence to put back, are most probably cast away on
the rocks and quicksands which are every day ready to devour them.

It was now our fortune to set out melioribus avibus. The wind freshened
so briskly in our poop that the shore appeared to move from us as fast
as we did from the shore. The captain declared he was sure of a wind,
meaning its continuance; but he had disappointed us so often that he had
lost all credit. However, he kept his word a little better now, and we
lost sight of our native land as joyfully, at least, as it is usual to
regain it.

Sunday.--The next morning the captain told me he thought himself thirty
miles to the westward of Plymouth, and before evening declared that the
Lizard Point, which is the extremity of Cornwall, bore several leagues
to leeward. Nothing remarkable passed this day, except the captain's
devotion, who, in his own phrase, summoned all hands to prayers, which
were read by a common sailor upon deck, with more devout force and
address than they are commonly read by a country curate, and received
with more decency and attention by the sailors than are usually
preserved in city congregati