benefit of their military guests; and thus, by reading, fishing,
and boating, we were enabled to make head, with some success,
against the encroachments of ennui. It must be confessed,
however, that in spite of strenuous efforts to the contrary, that
determined enemy of all idle persons was beginning to gain ground
upon us, when, about mid-day on the 24th of July, a cry of land
was heard from the mast-head. All eyes were immediately turned
in the direction to which the sailor pointed, and as wind blew
fair and moderately fresh, no great length of time before the
same object was distinguishable from the deck. A signal was
immediately hoisted for a pilot, who lost no time in coming off
to us; and before dark we were at anchor opposite to the tanks in
Bermuda.

The appearance of Bermuda is altogether as different from that of
St. Michael's as one thing can be from another. Whilst the last,
with its lofty mountains and bold shores, can be seen at the
distance of many leagues, a ship must be within a few miles of
the first before the slightest symptom of land is discernible.
On this account it is that mariners find greater difficulty in
making Bermuda than perhaps any other island or continent in the
known world; the most experienced seaman frequently sailing past
it, and not a few suffering shipwreck every year upon its
numerous shoals and rocks. For not only is the land itself low,
and thus apt to be run against by vessels which may have
approached in stormy weather too near to put about, but for many
miles round, reefs of sunken rocks stretch out into the sea in
every direction; insomuch, that even the approach to the
principal anchorage is no more than a narrow channel between two
reefs, in many places scarcely exceeding a mile or a mile and a