Symzonia: Voyage of Discovery

CHAPTER VI. The Author departs from Token Island, in search of an internal continent.--Wind, weather, and other phenomena of the internal seas.--Great alarm of the crew.--Discovery of an inhabited country. We were soon under weigh again, and steered due north, as well to seek for a new region of land, as to get into a more temperate climate; it being obvious that the internal equator must correspond in phenomena to the external pole, and consequently the more we approached the former, and receded from the latter, the cooler we should find the weather. Soon after leaving the island, the weather became exceedingly unpleasant; the atmosphere was loaded with dense black clouds, and we were annoyed with torrents of rain, together with very vivid lightning and heavy thunder. We lay to the greater part of three days, thinking it imprudent to run into unexplored seas in dark weather. The fourth day it brightened up a little, when we pushed on to the northward. After two days of unsettled weather, we were favoured with a fine westerly wind, blowing steady and pleasant like a trade wind, which continued during the remainder of this passage. For three days more we continued steering to the northward, when we found the weather delightfully pleasant. We had the direct rays of the sun nearly one fourth part of the time, and its reflected light the remainder. This last was the most pleasant, being something between sunshine and bright moonlight, without the glare of the one or the indistinctness of the other. Satisfied with the climate, I determined to keep in it, and run before the wind due east, until I discovered land, or circumnavigated this part of the globe.