water painter, I individually would prefer his style. We have every variety
of fish, meat, fowl, fruit, _dulces_, and wines.

A very long interval has to be filled up by reading, writing, sitting, or
walking upon deck, as suits the taste of the individual, or by drinking
orangeade, or by sleeping, or by any other ingenious resource for killing
time. At five, dinner, at which no one joins us but the captain and one
officer; and after dinner on deck till bed-time, walking about, or gazing
on the sky or sea, or listening to the songs of the sailors.

26th.--Little wind, but a day of such abominably cruel "_balances_," as
they call them, that one is tempted to find rest by jumping overboard.
Everything broken or breaking. Even the cannons disgorge their balls, which
fall out by their own weight.

28th.--We have had two days of perfect weather though very warm; the sky
blue, without one cloud. To-day we are on the sound, and have lain to,
about noon, to let the sailors fish, thereby losing an hour or so of fair
wind, and catching a preposterous number of fish of immense size. The water
was so clear, that we could see the fish rush and seize the bait as fast as
it was thrown in. Sometimes a huge shark would bite the fish in two, so
that the poor finny creature was between Scylla and Charybdis. These fish
are called _cherne_ and _pargo_, and at dinner were pronounced good. At
length a shark, in its wholesale greediness, seized the bait, and feeling
the hook in his horrid jaw, tugged most fiercely to release himself, but in
vain. Twelve sailors hauled him in, when, with distended jaws, he seemed to
look out for the legs of the men, whereupon they rammed the butt-end of a
harpoon down his throat, which put a stop to all further proceedings on his
part. He was said to be quite young, perhaps the child of doting parents.
The juvenile monster had, however, already cut three rows of teeth.