ake;* one, be it observed, of longitude, in which
particular the accounts of earlier navigators must always be received
with caution.

(*Footnote. Subsequent explorations have proved this to be the case.)

ANECDOTES OF MIAGO.

While our return to Swan River was thus baffled and delayed by the long
and almost unbroken continuance of foul winds, it afforded some diversion
to watch the countenance and conduct of Miago, who was as anxious as
anyone on board for the sight of his native land. He would stand gazing
steadily and in silence over the sea, and then sometimes, perceiving that
I watched him, say to me, "Miago sing, by and by northern men wind jump
up:" then would he station himself for hours at the lee-gangway, and
chant to some imaginary deity an incantation or prayer to change the
opposing wind. I could never rightly learn to whom this rude melody was
addressed; for if anyone approached him near enough to overhear the
words, he became at once silent; but there was a mournful and pathetic
air running through the strain, that rendered it by no means unpleasing;
though doubtless it owed much of its effect to the concomitant
circumstances. The rude savage--separated from all his former companions,
made at once an intimate and familiar witness of some of the wonders of
civilization, carried by his new comrades to their very country, and
brought face to face with his traditionary foes, the dreaded northern
men, and now returning to recount to his yet ruder brethren the wonders
he had witnessed--could not fail to interest the least imaginative.

Yet Miago had a decided and most inexplicable advantage over all on
board, and that in a matter especially relating to the science of
navigation: he could indicate at once and correctly the exact direction
of our wished-for harbour, when neither sun nor stars were shining to
assist him. He was tried frequently, and under very varying
circumstances, but strange as it may seem, he was invariably right. This
faculty--though somewhat analogous to one I have heard ascribed to the
natives of North America--had very much surprised me when exercised on
shore, but at sea, out of the sight of land, it seemed beyond belief, as
assuredly it is beyond explanation: but I have sometimes thought that
some such power must have been possessed by those adventurous seamen who,
long before the discovery of the compass, ventured upon distant and
hazardous voyages.

I used sometimes, as we approac