Page:The Columbia river , or, Scenes and adventures during a residence of six years on the western side of the Rocky Mountains among various tribes of Indians hitherto unknown (Volume 1).djvu/27

 ten knots an hour. The 28th we spoke a Portuguese brig bound from Rio Grande to Pernambuco. The captain and crew of this vessel were all negroes, the lowest of whom was six feet high. We inquired from the sable commander what was his longitude; but he could not give us any information on the subject! After setting this unfortunate navigator right we pursued our course; and the wind still continuing fresh, we were quickly emancipated from the scorching influence of a vertical sun.

On the 10th of December, in latitude 39°, we spoke the American ship Manilla, Captain M'Lean, on her return from a whaling voyage, and bound to Nantucket, Rhode Island. The captain came on board, and politely waited till we had written a few letters, of which he took charge. A few days after this we lost sight of the celebrated Magellanic clouds, which had been visible almost from the time we crossed the Equator. That these nebulæ should be so immutable in their form and station, has been a source of no trifling perplexity to our natural philosophers. As so much ink has already been consumed in speculations respecting these phenomena, and such various and conflicting opinions elicited from the most learned astronomers