Mrs. Beresford had
brought a novel on board, and refused to comply; the master-at-arms
insisted; she threatened him with the vengeance of the Company, the
premier, and the nobility and gentry of the British realm. The
master-at-arms, finding he had no chance in argument, doused the
glim--pitiable resource of a weak disputant--then basely fled the
rhetorical consequences.
The northerly breeze died out, and light variable winds baffled the ship.
It was the 6th April ere she passed the Macclesfield Bank in latitude 16.
And now they sailed for many days out of sight of land. Dodd's chest
expanded: his main anxiety at this part of the voyage lay in the state
cabin; of all the perils of the sea, none shakes a sailor like fire. He
set a watch day and night on that spoiled child.
On the 1st May they passed the great Nantuna, and got among the Bornese
and Malay islands: at which the captain's glass began to sweep the
horizon again, and night and day at the dizzy foretop gallant mast-head
he perched an Eye.
They crossed the line in longitude 107, with a slight breeze, but soon
fell into the Doldrums.
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