here a score of times, and am pretty well seasoned, but I have felt his
gripe, though I do not fear him now." I thanked the boatswain for his
advice. It was given, I suspected, for others' benefit as well as mine.

As the bright hot red sun rose in the sky, casting his beams down on our
heads, and making the pitch bubble up from the seams in the deck--as it
had done not unfrequently during the voyage--a few cats' paws were seen
playing over the mirror-like deep. The sails bulged out occasionally,
again to hang down as before; then once more they swelled out with the
gentle breeze, and the brigantine glided through the water, gradually
increasing her speed. I was eagerly looking out for the coast; at
length it came in sight--its distant outline rendered indistinct by the
misty pall which hung over it. As we drew nearer, its forest covered
heights had a particularly gloomy and sombre appearance, which made me
think of the cruelties I had heard were practised on those shores, of
the barbarous slave trade, of the fearful idolatries of its dark-skinned
children, of its wild beasts, and of its deadly fevers. There was
nothing exhilarating, nothing to give promise of pleasure or amusement.
As our gallant brigantine glided gaily on, sending the sparkling foam
from her bows through the tiny wavelets of the ocean, which glittered in
the radiance of a blue and cloudless sky, and her sails filled with the
fresh sea breeze, these feelings rapidly wore off. Now, on either side,
appeared a fleet of fishing canoes, the wild songs of their naked crews
coming across the water, as with rugged sails of matting lolling at
their ease, they steered towards the shore. We overtook some of them,
and such a loud jabber as they set up, talking to each other, or hailing
us, I had never heard.

Being near enough to the dangerous coast, we hove-to, and watched them
as they fearlessly made their way to shore on the summits of a
succession of rollers which burst in fearful breakers on the beach.
With our glasses we could see hundreds of dingy figures like black ants,
hurrying down to meet them, and to assist in hauling up their canoes.
As I cast my eye along the coast I could see many a bay and headland
bordered with a rim of glittering white sand, fringed by an unbroken
line of sparkling surf. Now we could make out the mud walls and
thatched roofs of the native villages, scattered here and there along
the shore, mostly nestling amid groves of