dawn was just stealing across the sea, and a
few faint streaks of reddish tinge showed the eastern part of the sky,
when the master of the _Zodiac_ came on deck. His ship was still
proudly holding her course unharmed, amid the waste of waters, and with
that fresh reviving hour when all the events of the new-born day are yet
to occur, the indistinct causes of the alarm of the previous night
appeared to have vanished, and even the superstitious seamen could
venture to smile at their previous terrors. The wind had fallen
considerably, and there was no longer sufficient to crest the tops of
the sluggish leaden-like waves which had not yet lost the hue thrown
over them by the mantle of night. Gradually, however, the eastern sky
assumed a warmer, and yet a warmer tinge, increasing till an orange glow
was cast across their surface, the sombre colour gave place to a
brighter purple, and as the sun bursting from his ocean confines, took
his rapid course upwards, they caught the intense blue of the sky above
them, on their changeful bosoms.

The first thing which a sailor does on coming on deck, is to cast his
eye aloft, to see what sails are set, and how they stand, and then to
sweep it round the horizon; his next is to go aft to the binnacle, and
to take a look at the compass.

Bowse quickly satisfied himself that the sails were properly trimmed,
and that the ship was steering on her right course; but the survey he
took of the horizon did not so well please him. There was in the first
place, some odd-shaped clouds floating along to the south and
south-east, just above the sea, which he did not like, and rather to the
northward of east, just on the horizon, were two sails, the appearance
of which he liked still less. He looked at them attentively, then he
rubbed his eyes, and looked at them again; but neither operation
satisfied him. He then went to the companion, and taking his spyglass,
surveyed the two objects for some time. A landsman would not have
remarked them; indeed, he would scarcely have perceived the faint,
irregularly shaped dots they appeared, just suspended, as it were, above
the horizon; but the well-practised eye of the old sailor could not only
discover what were their peculiar rigs, but even which way they were
steering. He soon determined, to the satisfaction of his own mind, that
the northern-most of the two, and the nearest, was a lateen-rigged
craft, standing, close hauled, to the northward, acro