a hundred and five degrees longitude. The weather
continued fine and serene, and our men expressed a wish to interrupt the
uniformity of their lives, by getting up a play. The theatre was
prepared, the play-bills given out, and the orchestra had even made the
signal for the company to assemble, when our merriment was suddenly
changed into terror and distress; another sailor fell overboard. He had
been keeping watch on the fore-mast, to provide for our safety against
land and shallows, in this untried region, and having neglected to
secure his own, fell a sacrifice to his thoughtlessness. Being injured
by the fall, he immediately sunk, and all our efforts to save him proved
fruitless. Separated as we had long been from our native country, the
loss of a member of our little society, thus bound together through good
or ill fortune, was sensibly felt; the poor fellow was, besides, one of
our best sailors: in the most violent storms, he had often executed the
most dangerous tasks at the mast-head with the greatest skill, and now
in the finest weather, with the ship moving in a manner scarcely
perceptible, was he destined to end, thus suddenly, his active and
useful life.

Having sailed four thousand miles in three weeks, since we left Chili,
we reached the neighbourhood of the dangerous Archipelago. By degrees we
now lost, contrary to all rule in this climate, the south-east
trade-wind, which had hitherto been so favourable to us, and contrary
winds from the West and North brought us very bad weather. An opinion
has been hitherto entertained, that the coral islands, from lying so low
and in small masses, could produce no change in the atmosphere, and that
the trade-winds, to which they offered no obstruction, would continue to
blow uninterruptedly in their neighbourhood. Repeated experience has,
however, convinced me that this is an error, and that these little
islands, at certain seasons, often cause variations from the ordinary
tropical weather.

On the 26th of February, we entered 16 deg. of latitude, and 129 deg. of
longitude. The wind blew from the West: black clouds labouring upwards,
covered the sky; violent and sudden gusts expended their fury on us, and
lightnings flashed from every corner of the horizon. The night was
really dreadful, and the tempest continued to rage, through a darkness
which, but for the lightning, would have been total, while torrents of
rain swept our decks. Nor did the return of light bring