At three o'clock, out burst the norther, which, like the flaming sword,
guarding the issues of paradise,

"Waved over by that flaming brand, the gate
With dreadful faces throng'd and fiery arms,"

seems to warn off all vessels from approaching these iron-bound shores.
Eleven days within a few hours' distance of the coast!

16th.--Five days more passed with a continuation of contrary winds and
constant rolling. We are further from hope than we were fourteen days ago.
Captain, officers, sailors, all seem nearly disheartened. This morning they
caught the most beautiful fish I ever beheld, of the dolphin
species--the Cleopatra of the ocean, about four feet long, apparently
composed of gold, and studded with turquoises. It changed colour in dying.
There is a proverb, which the sailors are repeating to each other, not very
encouraging:

"Este es el viage del Orinoco.
Que el que no se murio, se volvio loco."

"This is the voyage of the Orinoco,
in which he who did not die, became crazy."

17th.--Spoke a goleta, who came close up by our vessel, and seemed to have
a miserable set on board, amongst others, a worthy pair from Havana, who
had just come out of prison, having been accused of murdering a negro. The
wind continues contrary. I shall fold up this sea-scrawl, and write no more
till we reach Vera Cruz.