"By this time there was no standing out from under the awnings, and the quarter-deck and poop had to be well swabbed to keep them at all cool, the steam of it rising inside with a pitchy, hempen sort of smell you never feel save in the Tropics; the _Seringapatam_ still feeling the breeze aloft, and lifting on the water with a ripple forward, although her big courses went lapping fore and aft every time she swung. The long white haze on the horizon began to melt as the sun heightened, clearing from under the wake of the light, till now you could fairly see the sky to eastward. Near noon, in fact, we had almost dropped the haze altogether on the ship's quarter; and at first I was glad to see how much way she had made in the two hours, when on second thoughts, and by noticing some marks in the loom of it, I had no doubt but though she might be farther off, why it was only while she set more up to north-eastward, so that we were actually, so to speak, leaving it by getting nearer! However, as the men were at dinner, and most of the passengers gone off the poop, down to 'tiffin,' I made up my mind to try what I could do in a quiet way, towards making the mate think of it more seriously. "'Ah,' said I, in a would-be brisk and confidential kind of way, 'glad we're leaving that--a--you know, that land, Mr Finch.' 'Indeed, sir,' said he indifferently. 'Oh, you know,' said I, 'it's all very well for the _passengers_ there to talk fine about land--land--but you and I, Mr Finch, don't need to be told that it's always dangerous at sea, you know.' The mate lifted his head and eyed me for a moment or two between the disgust a sailor feels at seeing a fellow pretend to aught like seamanship, and a particular sort of spite toward me which I'd noticed growing in him for the last few days--though I daresay my breakfasting that morning in Sir Charles's cabin might have brought it to a height.