As we approached the equator it could be seen that some special interest in the voyage was being taken among the sailors and we learned that three of them had never crossed the line before and that an initiation of so doing was about to take place.  The crew assembled at the bow of the ship and at the blowing of a trumpet by one of their number, Neptune appeared inquiring the name of the ship, where she was bound, etc., and announced that he would like to pay her a visit.  Before his apparent arrival a staysail had been fastened to the rigging and filled with water.  A bucket had been filled with a mixture of lamp black and grease with a few other combinations, while a razor, a foot or more in length, had been made by the carpenter.  As soon as Neptune and Amphitrite—­two sailors fantastically dressed—­appeared, the candidate for crossing the line was blindfolded and brought before them.  A number of absurd questions were asked the candidate and he was finally ordered to be shaved, which was done by applying the mixture with an old paint brush and shaving it off with the razor.  He was then thrown backwards into the sail of water and I was much surprised to see how good naturedly the men took so many surprises—­for we had an excellent view from the quarter deck, of the whole entertainment.  We heard afterwards that it was considered a great success, also that one of the men had been watching through a glass for the equator, seeming to think that a straight line passing through the center of the earth should certainly be seen.  He thought he surely saw it when a hair was drawn tightly across a spy glass without his seeing it and the glass then given to him.

In one of his rambles about the decks, on a moonlight night, one of our passengers told me of some of the tattooes he had seen on the arms of different sailors.  One had his mother’s gravestone, with a weeping willow over it; another had the Goddess of Liberty remarkably well done.  The large number of different sketches was really quite an entertainment.  That reminds me of an engraved whale’s tooth which I have in my possession and which was given to my grandfather in Nantucket many years ago.  A full rigged ship with every rope, even to the smallest one, is carved upon it, with the engraver’s name and the name of the ship.  It is now nearly a hundred years old and among my most prized possessions.

We soon sighted the Island of Fernando Norouha which is a penal settlement for the convicts of Brazil.  This island is about six miles in circumference and two thousand and twenty feet high.  It had a rocky barren appearance with nothing to be seen but a few birds around it.  About thirty miles from this island are the Martin Van Rocks, three hundred feet high.  In the south Atlantic we sighted the group of Tristan Da Cunha Islands which had a very gloomy, foggy look.  Tristan is inhabited by English people and I have been told that the women are particularly handsome there.  In this region it is very chilly