After an experience of seven years on the West Coast of Africa, I have no hesitation in stating that the feeling of a Harmattan wind is very different from that of the north-east trade in the region just referred to.
On approaching the Equator, we were informed that some more of the drinking water was damaged, that the passengers were, in consequence, placed upon an allowance of one pint of water each per diem, and that we were to take charge of this allowance ourselves. The water was placed at the cabin-doors at six o’clock in the morning; and from the time we were put on short allowance of water, there was very little sleep on board of the ship after four o’clock in the morning; for every one was on the look-out, and, if one did not open the door of one’s cabin and seize the water the moment it was placed there, it disappeared immediately;—there was no redress, and no more water to be had until the next morning.
Under these circumstances the children, of course, asked for more water than before; and young Frank Indigo recommended his companions to eat ham, bacon, in fact anything salt, “because then, you know, they must give you water.”
The weather was getting warmer every hour, while we had the gratification of knowing that the liquids were decreasing rapidly; after the tenth day at sea, there was not a bottle of soda-water on board the “Ireland,” bound to Calcutta, in the hot season.
On crossing the Equator, there were great inquiries for old Father Neptune, but the captain thought it was judicious to bribe him not to visit the “Ireland,” as the ceremony of shaving so many young ladies would have created quite a scene. So we found ourselves in another hemisphere without the occurrence of anything more amusing than the old trick of an aged tar exhibiting the “line” through a battered telescope; and the day was pretty well spent before the younger passengers discovered that the old wag had been inducing them to look at a thread of a spider’s web instead of the Equator. The first visit to the Ocean reveals such mysteries that the human mind is prepared to entertain great absurdities as sublime truths.
From the time of passing the Cape de Verde Islands, the younger ladies had taken considerable interest in the Southern Cross. It was really a beautiful sight, as we proceeded rapidly to the south, under the power of steam, to see some of these fair maidens, night after night, sitting on the deck, gazing in silent admiration on the glorious firmament, spangled with the starry hosts.
Some of these fair girls had not been out of England before; and one, I remember well, had never seen the Ocean until she beheld it in its fury from the deck of the “Ireland,” when we made our first start from England. Those who have visited the Southern Hemisphere, and seen the emblem of Christianity standing alone in the heavens, pointing to the South Pole, may imagine the effect of this glorious panorama on the minds of these young girls.
The eye looks in vain for another constellation to rest upon; it is to the glorious revolving Cross that the Southern Hemisphere is indebted for its celestial beauty; and I have never been able to look upon it without thinking what must have been the feelings of Bartholomew Diaz, of Vasco de Gama, and their followers, who, as they bent their way to the dark pole, perceived this emblem of their faith dominant in the South:—
“Ja descoberto tinhamos diante
La no novo hemispherio nova estrella,