We now were got in the tract of the trade winds, which blowing continually east, and the weather becoming from day to day more temperate, made the voyage exceedingly pleasant; more so by the many dolphins or dorados, which beautiful fish seem to take peculiar delight in sporting around the vessels. The real dolphin, which is of the cetaceous kind, was anciently celebrated in poetic story on account of its philanthropy and other supposed virtues: but to the dorado or dolphin of the moderns, this character is far from being applicable, this fish being extremely voracious and destructive, and is known to follow the ships, and exhibit his sports and gambols, not from attachment to mankind, but from the more selfish motive of procuring food, particularly on the eve of an approaching storm, of which he appears perfectly sensible. The circumstance which chiefly entitles the dorado to our attention is, the unrivalled and dazzling brilliancy of its colours in the water, the whole of its back being enamelled with spots between azure blue and a reflecting light sea-green, on a very dark ground, which appears as bespangled all over with jewels, and forms a most beautiful contrast to the belly, which is of a whitish cast; the fins and tail are of a golden dye: the length of this animal is from five to six feet, and its form tapers from the head towards the tail, which is divided, and terminates not unlike the shape of a crescent. The head is round, and preceded by a kind of snout; the jaws are armed with several sharp teeth, and the eyes are remarkably large. The scales of the dorado are uncommonly small, and it is furnished with a fin, which runs along its back from the one extremity to the other. Our progress was now daily marked by increasing warm weather, which released me from the confinement of a disagreeable cabin crowded with officers, most of whom had never been to sea, and enabled me to pursue my favourite amusements, whether of reading above deck, or exercise in the rigging. Thus circumstanced I, on the 17th, had the happiness of rendering a most important service to one of our young officers, a Mr. du Moulin, who by a sudden roll of the vessel was actually thrown over the gunwale; at that moment happening to stand without-board in the main-chains, I fortunately grasped hold of him in his fall, which saved him, as he could not swim, from inevitable death.