A Voyage in the Sunbeam | Page 6

it impossible to sit
anywhere with comfort, and difficult even to read. By 6 a.m. the sun
had become very powerful, though its heat was tempered by the breeze,
which gradually increased throughout the day, until, having set all our
fore-and-aft canvas, as well as our square sails, we glided steadily
along, in delightful contrast to the uneasy motion of the morning, and
of the past few days. Under the awning--with the most heavenly blue
sky above, and the still darker clear blue sea beneath, stretching away
in gentle ripples as far as the eye could reach--it was simply perfect.
Our little party get on extremely well together, though a week ago they

were strangers to each other. We are all so busy that we do not see
much of one another except at meals, and then we have plenty to talk
about. Captain Lecky imparts to us some of his valuable information
about scientific navigation and the law of storms, and he and Tom and
Captain Brown work hard at these subjects. Mr. Freer follows in the
same path; Mr. Bingham draws and reads; Dr. Potter helps me to teach
the children, who, I am happy to say, are as well as possible. I read and
write a great deal, and learn Spanish, so that the days are all too short
for what we have to do. The servants are settling down well into their
places, and the commissariat department does great credit to the cooks
and stewards. The maids get on satisfactorily, but are a little nervous on
rough nights. We hope not to have many more just at present, for we
are now approaching calmer latitudes.
In the course of the day, whilst Tom and I were sitting in the stern, the
man at the wheel suddenly exclaimed, 'There's land on the port bow.'
We knew, from the distance we had run, that this could not be the case,
and after looking at it through the glasses, Tom pronounced the
supposed land to be a thick wall of fog, advancing towards us against
the wind. Captain Brown and Captain Lecky came from below, and
hastened to get in the studding-sails, in anticipation of the coming
squall. In a few minutes we had lost our fair breeze and brilliant
sunshine, all our sails were taken flat aback, and we found ourselves
enveloped in a dense fog, which made it impossible for us to see the
length of the vessel. It was an extraordinary phenomenon. Captain
Lecky, who, in the course of his many voyages, has passed within a
few miles of this exact spot more than a hundred and fifty times, had
never seen anything in the least like it. As night came on the fog
increased, and the boats were prepared ready for lowering. Two men
went to the wheel, and two to the bows to look out, while an officer
was stationed on the bridge with steam-whistle and bell ready for an
emergency; so that, in case we ran into anything, or anything ran into
us, we should at least have the satisfaction of knowing that, so far as we
were concerned, it had all been done strictly according to Act of
Parliament.
Saturday, July 15th.--Between midnight and 4 a.m. the fog disappeared,

as suddenly as it had come on. We must have passed through a wide
belt of it. At 5.30 a.m., when Tom called me to see a steamer go by, it
was quite clear. The vessel was the 'Roman,' and she passed so close to
us that we made our number, and exchanged salutations with the
officers on the bridge.
Towards the afternoon a nice breeze sprang up, and we were able to
bank fires and sail.
CHAPTER II.
MADEIRA, TENERIFFE, AND CAPE DE VERDE ISLANDS.
Full many a green isle needs must be In this wide sea of misery, Or the
mariner worn and wan Never thus could voyage on.
[Illustration: Our First View of Madeira]
Sunday, July 16th.--Porto Santo being visible on the port bow, a quarter
of a mile ahead, by 3.55 a.m. this morning, our three navigators
congratulated themselves and each other on the good land-fall they had
made.
It looks a curious little island, and is situated about thirty-five miles
north-east of Madeira, with a high peak in the centre, of which we
could only see the extreme point, appearing above the clouds.
It is interesting to know that it was from his observation of the
drift-wood and débris washed on to the eastern shore that Columbus,
who had married the daughter of the Governor of Porto Santo, derived
his first impressions of the existence of the New World. Here it was
that he first realised there might possibly be a large and unknown
country to the westward; here it