the bargain, so we were able to carry not only a jib-headed topsail, but
also our spinnaker at the bowsprit-end; and under this canvas the little
beauty made uncommonly short miles of it, tripping along like a rustic
belle going to her first ball. We fell in with several homeward-bound
ships, all of whom we requested to report us on their arrival as "all
well." So fine a run had we from the Cape de Verdes, that on the
morning of the fifth day after sighting them we ran into the "doldrums,"
or region of calms and light variable airs which prevail about the line.

Here our light duck did us valuable service, for though the wind soon
fell so light that it became imperceptible to us, and not a ripple
disturbed the glassy surface of the water, by getting our enormous
balloon gaff-topsail aloft we managed to catch enough wind from
_somewhere_ to fan us along at the rate of nearly three knots. True,
the breeze was very variable, our boom being sometimes on one side and
sometimes on the other, sometimes square out (at least as far as the
little air of wind had power to project it), and sometimes hauled close
in as the flaws headed us, and broke us off two or three points one side
or the other of our course. But, in spite of the baffling airs, such
good progress did we make, that by two o'clock that afternoon we were
gliding slowly through a fleet of about forty sail of vessels which were
so completely becalmed that they were heading in all directions, utterly
without steerage-way.

We reported ourselves to such as we passed within hail of, and finally,
about four o'clock, ranged up alongside of and boarded a beautiful
little barque of about three hundred and fifty tons, whose monkey-poop
we saw full of passengers (some of whom were ladies), regarding us with
the utmost curiosity as we approached. She turned out to be from Natal,
bound to London; and her captain (a perfect gentleman both in appearance
and manner) not only promised to report us, but gave us a hearty welcome
on board, and so cordial an invitation to dinner that there was no
resisting it.

Our story, or at least as much of it as we chose to tell (which was
simply that we were taking the cruise partly as an adventure, and partly
with the object of seeking intelligence of my father), was of course
soon drawn out of us; and, naturally enough, it excited the liveliest
astonishment in the minds of our hearers, and soon got all over the
ship. We excited some cu