CHAPTER I.
I EMBARKED, on January 9th, 1868, in the Tasmania, one of the Royal Mail Company's steamers, from South-ampton, in a frost so sharp that I could have skatedfrom my hotel through the streets to the vessel. At whatever time of the year you quit England for South America, you will find that in a month you are placed in exactly an opposite season to that in which you were on leaving home. Therefore, by plunging from the in-clement time of midwinter in England to the hottes midsummer season in Brazil, in a tropical zone, during the short interval of eighteen days, you will find it difficult to bear, and at first very trying.
The sea fortunately was calm, and we were told that the air would certainly be mild in two or three days" time, when, if the wind proved favourable, we should have run from 500 to 600 miles. If you can get across "the chops of the channel" and the Bay of Biscay without a west wind and gales, you may congratulate yourself with the almost certainty that all the rest of the voyage to Rio, for 4200 miles, will be a fine "yachting" voyage.
