About this time we lost the north-east trade wind, which was succeeded by calms and squalls, that detained us seven or eight days near the Line. Nothing can be experienced in a voyage much more unpleasant than this vicissitude of weather. The irksomeness of a calm near the equator is rendered almost insupportable by the ardent rays of the sun; every one seems to languish: several, and often many hours drag heavily on, while the vessel makes no progress, and only experiences a disagreeable motion by the heaving of the glassy ocean, its surface not being in the least ruffled by a breath of air. In the mean time, an elemental war is brooding. A black and pitchy cloud is seen awfully and slowly moving on, with fury in its train; all is alarm; with haste the sails are lowered. The sullen langour of the atmosphere is succeeded by the “maddening tempest,” so suddenly and with so little warning, that sometimes, before every precaution can be taken, the sweeping impetuosity lays the vessel instantaneously upon her side, and, in that situation, she is hurried forward with immense velocity. These conflicting winds are as quickly followed by solid torrents of rain. In a short period, all is tranquillity again, and the returning sun, in burning radiance, annihilates the last breeze that feebly curled the face of the ocean. The same scenes alternately present themselves. During the night these sudden squalls are the most dangerous, as their approach cannot be so well ascertained. On the first day that we were becalmed, notwithstanding the advances we occasionally made by the transient operation of those gusts, we found our latitude 1° 43′ north, and the preceding day it was only 1° 23′. This can only be accounted for by the strong northerly currents now prevailing here; and hence it would appear, that the same invariable law of attraction governs them as well as the winds. The squalls I have mentioned also came from the south and south-east, and the winds beginning at this time to blow here, issue from the same quarter, in consequence, no doubt, of the sun being in the northern tropic. If he creates a vacuum in his vicinity by the rarefaction of the air, which induces a great influx from the southern and northern hemispheres of the atmosphere, in like manner the exuberant evaporations from the sea may produce a rushing of the waters to supply what is lost (_pro tempore_) by vapours. Various causes, however, operate to prevent an uniform appearance in this respect, such as the occasional counter-attraction of the moon and other celestial bodies, of continents and other lands, as well as a prevailing repulsive power in nature. Still if those effects could be minutely followed through their various ramifications, it might be found that the winds and currents originate in the combinations I have ventured to suggest. Is it not possible, that the calms near the equator at this period may arise from the equally poised contention of the south-east and north-east