Having completed my examination I dismissed the boat and walked back to Santa Cruz, from whence we sailed at five o’clock this evening.

CHAPTER 2.  TO BAHIA AND THE CAPE OF GOOD HOPE.

ATMOSPHERICAL PHENOMENON AT SEA.

Nothing important occurred during the voyage from Tenerife to Bahia; but one atmospherical phenomenon I think is worthy at a future day of further enquiry.

I remarked constantly, just at sunset, in these latitudes, that the eastern horizon was brilliantly illuminated with a kind of mock sunset.  This in a short time disappeared, to be soon succeeded by another similar in character, but more faint.  I observed at the same time, in the western horizon, the regular sunset, and then two appearances, like those seen in the east; perhaps this may be fully accounted for by a triple reflection, as in the common theory of the rainbow.

Land at Bahia.

August 17.

We came in sight of the coast of South America about noon, and dropped anchor in the harbour of Bahia at four P.M.; and about half an hour after I went on shore with Mr. Lushington, a person of the name of Wilson taking us in his boat:  there was a slave in the boat, and, not knowing that he understood English, I asked Mr. Wilson several questions about slaves in general, and he gave me a good deal of information on this subject, mentioning among other things that the price of a good slave here varied from 90 to 100 pounds, he happened to state that the slaves were wretched in their own country, and that frequently large numbers were sacrificed to their gods.  I never saw so fine a burst of natural indignation as the slave in the boat evinced at this statement; his lip curled up with scorn, his dark eye grew vividly bright, and his frame quivered as he made an impassioned reply in Portuguese; I could not understand all that he said, but caught enough to know the tenor of it, that “this was not the case; Englishmen or foreigners never visited his country, so how could they know.”  It was not so much what he said but the scornful bitterness of his manner that made an impression on me, not easily to be effaced.

Night walk.

I took a night walk in the country this evening and experienced those wild and undescribable feelings which accompany the first entrance into a rich tropical country.  I had arrived just towards the close of the rainy season, when everything was in full verdure, and new to me.  The luxuriant foliage expanding in magnificent variety, the brightness of the stars above, the dazzling brilliancy of the fireflies around me, the breeze laden with balmy smells, and the busy hum of insect life making the deep woods vocal, at first oppress the senses with a feeling of novelty and strangeness till the mind appears to hover between the realms of truth and falsehood.

The town of Bahia.