about six pounds. A great number followed our ship, and we varied our dinner at their expense; such is the stupidity of these little " old women," as the sailors call them, that as soon as one is speared or wounded, all the rest rush blindly on the murderous iron. . We stopped after we had taken twenty-seven, because we were tired, and presently the little old ladies went away.
Then we got out our glasses, and perceived a boat leaving a ship, becalmed like our own. At the first view, they seemed to us to be probably pirates, but as they came nearer we saw that there were only five men, and we were reassured. When they came up they were invited to come on board, but they refused, alleging that they were going to Marseilles, where, to escape the quarantine, they would be obliged to swear that they had not set foot in any other ship. Their pilot said he was the captain of a French ship, the Felicite, which had been wrecked on the African coast, and the crew taken on board the ship before us, the Fourmie. He had come to get his longitude, and after asking a few questions concerning France and taking letters from the captain and the sisters, he went away again.
On the 23d, the sky was clear and beautiful, and an exhibition of our whole wardrobe was held: the deck looked like a second-hand shop. This was repeated from time to time - for sanitary reasons. Sunday, the 28th, though the sky was serene and the wind moderate, there was such a swell that it was impossible to say mass: Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had that pleasure. In the evening we sang vespers on deck as usual.
On the Ist of February we were in sight of the Island of San Antonio, belonging to the Cape Verde group. Here flying fish began to appear; later we saw clouds of them between the tropics; several flew on deck. On the following day, the feast of the Purification, toward nine p. m., we sang canticles and the litanies of the Holy Virgin. Never, perhaps, have the Atlantic and Pacific oceans resounded