Library Collections: Document: Full Text

Tuesday, July the 16th. I have nothing to say on this day. We did nothing extraordinary; neither did we discover anything on the ocean. The weather was fine and serene, the sun shone brightly, the wind blew but little, the sea did not murmur, the waves were silent. In a word, all was in peace around us. From time to time we saw a great number of porpoises, which sported hither and thither.

P.S. I have almost forgotten to say that we have also with us a bitch belonging to Captain Hall, and certainly I should never have named her without the event which has just happened and which now gives me an opportunity to speak of her. She yesterday evening became the mother of a pretty large family, seven in number, of whom three died and were cast into the sea. The other four who have out-lived the rest, grow while we are looking at them. The mother is extremely careful and watchful. She routs our hogs when they approach her kennel.

Wednesday, July the 17th. The weather suddenly changed. Yet the morning was rather fine, but in the afternoon it drizzled and the wind blew so violently that we began to fear our ship would be in danger, but happily the weather softened by degrees, though it continued to rain at intervals. We passed the evening very sadly; but for myself, I studied and I had no time to be weary.

Thursday, July the 18th. It continued to rain at intervals and to blow with violence, but much more violently than the preceding day, and so violently that the gallant sail of our ship was rent. Nobody perceived it except the Captain who saw it after dinner. He at once called all the sailors and ordered them to mount above. They did it, and when they were there, they busied themselves in uniting and letting down the top gallant sail, in order to substitute another in its place. This was soon done, and our ship continued her way as she had been doing.

Almost at the same time we discovered before us another ship which we soon overtook and passed by, but without having approached it, for it was at the north and we at the west, and we always have it in sight, but at a great distance. In the evening, the sea was extremely agitated. It cast water here and there upon deck, and also a certain kind of I do not know what fish, which the sailors gathered and showed us. After supper, being seated on deck near M. Gallaudet who held my slates, I took it from him and wrote upon it that the East was very avaricious, for since thirty days we have been on the sea and it has not granted us a single morsel of wind. He laughed upon reading it. The Captain having come up to sit at my side, I told him that, seeing the bad wind, we should yet be on the sea during a month and a half, and that I was rather uneasy lest we should begin to fail of water; but he removed my fears by saying that if we used our provisions with economy we might remain at sea three or four months longer and yet fail of nothing.

Friday, July the 19th. Fair weather, a calm and peaceful sea, but not a breath of wind and consequently not the least progress. The Captain wishing to assure himself whether we advanced or whether we went back or whether we stopped, ordered the second mate to let down the Jolly-boat and to go with two sailors at a distance to ascertain which way the current ran. They did it and the result of their experiment was that the current ran across the course of the ship. After dinner, a second hog was killed, but I was not present. The first time had caused me too much pain to be a witness twice to such a spectacle. I passed all the evening in reading a book entitled: "Napoleon's Abode in the Island of Ella", which the French passenger had lent me, and when I had terminated it I returned it to him.

Saturday, July the 20th. The morning was rainy, the forenoon clear and also the afternoon; the evening cloudy and in the night which became extremely stormy, it rained apace, lightened and thundered all at once. We all descended quite frightened into our cabin and whilst we prayed to God, the lightning lighted us from time to time. We did not fail to ask God to preserve us and that no accident whatever might happen to us. It appears that our wish was favorably heard, for the weather soon began to be fair again. Two hours before this we took a Dolphin (un Dauphin) which struggled with death upon deck during a quarter of an hour. To conclude, it died and the Captain dissected it. M. Gallaudet anatomized one of its eyes and preserves it as a remembrance of the victory which we had obtained on that sea animal. We ate a part of it at our supper and found it excellent, and the rest at our breakfast of the next day.

I was at this point going to terminate my diary when M. Gallaudet reminded me that I had not said all about this fish. I was then obliged to return to it and give a more ample description of it. That Dolphin was about three feet in length and eight or nine inches in width, and from two to three thick. Its head was bigger than all the other members of its body. Its eyes were quite round and as big as those of an ox. Its mouth was pretty large. It had a fin on each side near the neck and a common tail, and upon the back a large comb which opens and shuts itself as a fan, as the animal moves it, and under the belly a similar comb, but smaller. Its skin is not less remarkable. Besides that it is marked here and there with certain little black spots. It presents the image of many colours. I saw yellow on the right side, green on the left, white under the body, black above, red elsewhere, and all those colours changed as the fish moved itself. It seemed to be very strong, for it struggled long upon deck and in struggling, it made a great noise.