TRAVELLING IN DREAMS.

17

ful boas noites to my friends, I retired to rest. But all night I was anticipating my journey across the interesting Deccan I thought of the novel modes of travelling I should experienceperhaps I might have a lodge at some hospitable choultrie attended by Brahmins, or in the lonely jungle where tigers prowl and scent their pray by prey night, and the hooded cobra coils, with his fangs of poison set. I saw the verdant and picturesque but towering Ghauts the interior plateaux, where the customs of the natives remain unchanged and the famous mountain, carved into the colossal statue of a Jain Saint, Gomuta Raya, at Shrivanabalagoland perhaps I might see that famous city Seringapatam, the capital of the great Al Hyder, and his celebrated son, Tippothe cities of Mysore, and the rich vicinity of Madras, I should certainly see. Then would come the thought of accidents the possible meeting of T'hags, or attacks of wild beasts, and the treachery of guides in lonely places these bodings at times startled me from sleep, and aroused me to hear the strange cry of the sentry: "Alerta ! alerta esta! repeated from post to post, fainter and fainter, till again I was dreaming that all I had dreamt before was only a dream, and that I was still in the Columbia. So that I awoke but little refreshed.

Before breakfast two large ships were descried in the offing standing to the northward. One thought they must be the American ships; another knew they could not be, for they appeared to him to be differently rigged; while I thought it was impossible for them to wait or return for me: nor did I wish them to be detained on any consideration; particularly as I was uncomfortably

situated when there

I could not be missed in

any way - and had a pleasant prospect elsewhere. It was not long, however, before the ships were seen much nearer standing off and on and an officer from the signal fort, decided that they were the American ships. This officer stated, to my surprise, that the frigate's chaplain had been also left on shore was entertained at the fort through the night and had just gone off to join his ship. That was enough; and, declining the offer of a boat from the Maria, I engaged a sailboat that chanced to be near bade a last farewell to my kind friends, and was soon after on board the Columbia. The commodore was not so severe in his reprimand as I had reason to expect. He knew how unpleasant and perplexing my situation had been in his flag-ship; and, on this occasion, as before, he evinced a considerate indulgence.

Our messmates and fellow-officers were glad to meet us again on ship-board, although they had not expected us; and we learnt that much exultation had been noised among the juniors in the hope of having no schools; and nearly as much among the crew for their probable riddance of all preaching for the rest of the cruise.

Once more on our way, by the eighteenth of November, we were off Mangalore, on the Malabar coast, and could see the houses and boats, Mount Dilly in the rear, and the Peak of Barcalora. Just below this place, our ships past through a singular discolouration of the sea. At one time the waves were of a reddish brown, or umber colour, like the juniper waters of the Dismal Swamp; and then came alternate portions of blue, green, and red, with lines of separation distinctly

PHOSPHORESCENCE OF THE SEA.

19

marked. The soundings were green and blue mud and red sand in twenty-two fathoms. Many thought this was not enough to account for the appearances, and conjectured that the colours were caused by waters discharged from a river near Mangalore.

That evening we saw a splendid phosphorescence of the sea. It was brightest at about half past ten o'clock, and did not fade or diminish till near twelve. Wherever the surface was disturbed, either by the courses of the little fishes swimming several feet deep, or by lines towed overboard, and upon every ripple far and near, there was a brilliant whitish fire, marking the figure of the object. The fiery foam thrown together before the cut-water illuminated the entire bow, and lighted up a part of the jib and fore rigging. At the stern, whenever the rudder was moved, there was light enough, without exaggeration, to read by at a distance of several feet; and the water drawn up in a bucket retained its phosphorescence for many minutes, appearing all the while like a vessel of pure flame.

The next day we were near the Laccadive islands, though we did not see any of them; but on the Malabar coast, which still ranged along beneath the Ghauts, we were constantly passing little villages, whence the natives would bring off to us in their light canoes, various fruits and fish; and the miner birds, which look like crows, with yellow gills and comb, and make a note, as Dr. Ruschenberger says, comparable to the noise of young pigs. It is asserted that fowls, which were brought to us in abundance, were not known here till the Europeans introduced them.

On Monday evening we passed in sight of the

white cabins of Calicut, the capital of the Zamorins, who were the sovereigns of the rich coast from Goa to Cochin, and where Vasco de Gama first landed,* from the first European vessel that traversed the Indian Ocean. This was one of the earliest conquests of the Portuguese, and it has since been the scene of sanguinary contests between the English and Tippoo. In less than twenty-four hours from the sight of Calicut, we were passing the city of Cochin, where Vasco de Gama, in his second Indian voyage, landed Alvarez de Cabral, who so adroitly managed a league with the natives against the political finesse of the Arabians, and the Zamuan king, as to gain the place and hold it, as a key to the Fast, for the forth coming hero Alberquerque. Here Vasco de Gama found the settlements of the Nestorians, or St. Thomas Christians, with a Syriac version of the Bible; and among them many black and white Jews with a synagogue. The place is still possessed of a considerable trade in spices, and tiek wood.

The low coast of Travancore extends from Cochin to Cape Comorin, with little variety excepting the villages, and its abundance of cocoa palms. The little town of Alipee was full in sight, as we slowly passed, so that we could see its fort and flag, and a temple or monument, and three large ships at anchor outside.

On the twenty-third, we discovered the last point of Hindostan, where the Ghauts end abruptly in a majestic promontory about 1294 yards high. It is covered with a rich verdure, and is said to have a fine cascade issuing from its side into a beautiful plain of forests. This promi

* May 22, 1498.

SIGHT OF CEYLON.

21

nence is supposed by the natives to be the sanctified residence of the Hindoo Parvati, their goddess of mountains, and the spouse of Siva.

On Saturday evening, November twenty-fifth, the outline of Adam's Peak, the pinnacle of Ceylon, was anounced in sight. "Where? where?" exclaimed the idlers, who were most eager to obtain the first glimpse of land. "Yonder it is," said a fanciful observer, "where that dark conical outline makes the clouds on either side appear like window curtains festooned." "He means,"

said the old boatswain, near by, "that bluish figure like a hay-stack; but any one that ever made land from the sea, I'm thinking, would never mistake a good land-fall like that for a window curtain, nor a cloud either."

Early the next morning we were standing into the open roadstead of Columbo, and before noon, anchored about two miles from the old Dutch fort, which, with a white tower used as a light-house, and some distant hills were all that could be seen, excepting the continuous verdure that clad the crescent shores of the anchorage.