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Fevers and horrible malaria, bred by the blazing sun of the equator out of those pestilential jungles, poisoned the atmosphere. His handful of troops, amounting to not much more than a hundred men to each of his ships, might melt away before his eyes. Nevertheless, although it was impossible for him to carry the place by regular approach, he would not abandon the hope of reducing it by famine.
His atmosphere is marked with spots and belts, and on the whole his condition is like that of Jupiter. "Two flat rings or hoops, divided by a dark space, encircle his ball in the plane of his equator. The inner ring is over 18,000 miles from the ball, and nearly 17,000 miles broad. The gap between is 1,750 miles wide, and the outer ring is over 10,000 miles broad.
Rain fell drearily as we passed Fatu-hiva, the first of the Marquesas Islands sighted from the south. We had climbed from Tahiti, seventeen degrees south of the equator, to between eleven and ten degrees south, and we had made a westward of ten degrees. The Marquesas Islands lay before us, dull spots of dark rock upon the gray water.
Gohr, the Director of Justice, who well deserved a holiday after his extremely responsible and arduous duties, Captain Stevens, the Commissaire of the Equator District, as cheerful and jolly as ever, Mr. Longlain, the Director of the A.B.I.R. Company who has come in for a quite unmerited share of abuse, and many other State Officials, many of whom were in an indifferent state of health.
"Of this island the southern part is seventy-three degrees from the equator, not sixty-three degrees, as some geographers pretend." But here he was wrong. The Southern part of Iceland is in the latitude of sixty-three and a half degrees. "The English, chiefly those of Bristol, carry their merchandise, to this island, which is as large as England.
According to some, Cape Verd, or Rio Grande, was the limit; according to others, one navigator reached as far as the coast of Guinea, and Cape Mesanado: some extend the limit even as far south as the equator.
"Yes; they were talking about it when we left Paris," said M. de Saint-Meran; "and where is it decided to transfer him?" "To Saint Helena." "For heaven's sake, where is that?" asked the marquise. "An island situated on the other side of the equator, at least two thousand leagues from here," replied the count. "So much the better.
As Valparaiso is situated to the south of the Equator, and, as is well known, the seasons of the southern hemisphere are exactly the contrary of those of the northern, it was now autumn. The apples and pears were not so good nor so abundant as with us. In conclusion, I will here give a list of the prices which travellers have to pay for certain things:
But the experts say that 90 deg. in New South Wales is harder to bear than 112 deg. in the neighboring colony of Victoria, because the atmosphere of the former is humid, and of the latter dry. The mean temperature of the southernmost point of New South Wales is the same as that of Nice 60 deg. yet Nice is further from the equator by 460 miles than is the former.
Of course he expected besides these to take along a little plain grub, and some blankets, and a frying pan and kettle or so. The English friend has known several Americans, so he explains patiently. "I know this seems foolish to you," he says, "but you must remember you are under the equator and you must do things differently here.
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