As the vessels were to separate finally, the gunboat fired a salute of seven guns, which was returned by both ships; and then they sped on their voyage of eight hundred miles to Manila. The captain gave out the course east by north half-north, and the French flag was hauled down from the topmast. The passengers of the Blanche had been sent on board of her, while those of the Guardian-Mother continued to promenade the deck. The commander noticed that some of them were gaping and yawning, and he remembered that they had had only three or four hours' sleep.
"I advise you all to turn in and finish your night's sleep," said he. "Professor Giroud will give his lecture on the Philippine Islands and Manila to-morrow at half-past nine. There is nothing to do till dinner-time. No lunch will be served to-day in the cabin, for you have but just left the breakfast-table; but any one can ring his bell, and send for whatever is wanted."
The passengers seemed to think favorably of this advice, for they all went below. There was nothing to see; for there was not a single island in the course, and the ship was soon out of sight of land, not to see it again till she made Luban Island, off the entrance to Manila Bay. The wind was almost dead ahead, though it blew very gently; but this circumstance soon attracted the attention of Scott, who had been so busy with the frolics that he had not had time to consult his books and chart.
It was not his watch; and he went to his stateroom, returning very soon with the blue book that goes with the chart of the Indian Ocean. He found that there was an east monsoon which prevailed in the China Sea north of the equator.
"What's the matter, Mr. Scott?" asked the captain when he found him absorbed over his book. "Do you think we are going wrong, or that there is a typhoon within hail?"
"Neither, sir; I was looking to see why the wind was east to-day," replied the third officer.
"You have discovered by this time that there is an east monsoon coming in between those from the north-east and south-west."
"But we did not find it coming up from Sarawak to Bangkok," added the young officer.
"Your course carried you within between one hundred and one hundred and fifty miles of the Malay Peninsula. This and the great island of Sumatra doubtless have some influence on the winds. Both of these bodies of land are very hot; and, as the air from them tends to the cooler atmosphere of the sea, they favor the south-west monsoons. All these bodies of land modify to some extent the prevailing winds."
Scott was satisfied with the explanation, for it conformed with what he found in his book. When he carried his authority back to his room, he turned in and took his nap, in order to be ready for his watch at eight bells in the afternoon watch. In fact, all but the watch on deck were asleep.