upon the existence of such dangers; the origin of which may be ascribed
to drift timber--reflected light discolouring the sea, and causing the
appearance of broken water--or to the floating carcass of a whale, by
which I have myself been more than once deceived.

ARRIVAL AT SAN SALVADOR.

A succession of winds between South-South-East and South-East, with the
aid of a strong westerly current, soon brought us near the Brazils. We
made the land on the morning of the 17th, about 15 miles to the
north-east of Bahia, and in the afternoon anchored off the town of San
Salvador.

Though this was neither my first nor second visit to Bahia, I was still
not indifferent to the magnificent or rather luxuriant tropical scenery
which it presents. A bank of such verdure as these sun-lit climes alone
supply, rose precipitously from the dark blue water, dotted with the
white and gleaming walls of houses and convents half hidden in woods of
every tint of green; while here and there the lofty spires of some
Christian temple pointed to a yet fairer world, invisible to mortal eye,
and suggested even to the least thoughtful, that glorious as is this
lower earth, framed by Heaven's beneficence for man's enjoyment, still it
is not that home to which the hand of revelation directs the aspirations
of our frail humanity.

STATE OF THE COUNTRY AT BAHIA.

I had last seen Bahia in August, 1836, on the homeward voyage of the
Beagle; and it was then in anything but a satisfactory condition; the
white population divided among themselves, and the slaves concerting by