Making so long a passage through such unfrequented waters, descrying no ships, and ere long, sideways impelled by unvarying
trade winds, over waves monotonously mild; all these seemed the strange calm things preluding some riotous and desperate scene.
The tranced ship indolently rolls; the drowsy
trade winds blow; everything resolves you into languor.
Captain Marryatt writes: "I do not know a spot on the globe which so much astonishes and delights upon first arrival as Madeira." A stay of one or two days will be made here, which, if time permits, may be extended, and passing on through the islands, and probably in sight of the Peak of Teneriffe, a southern track will be taken, and the Atlantic crossed within the latitudes of the northeast
trade winds, where mild and pleasant weather, and a smooth sea, can always be expected.
For the good of his health, an' mine an' yours, an' all of us, we got to get up anchor pretty soon an' hit out for the home of the
trade winds that kiss you through an' through with the salt an' the life of the sea."
They are golden-fleshed, the Hawalians, a race of lovers, all in the warm cool of the tropic night where the
trade winds blow."
In the middle belt of the earth the Trade Winds reign supreme, undisputed, like monarchs of long-settled kingdoms, whose traditional power, checking all undue ambitions, is not so much an exercise of personal might as the working of long-established institutions.
Even in the constitutional realm of Trade Winds, north and south of the equator, ships are overtaken by strange disturbances.
The Arangi was beating out between the coral patches of the narrow channel into the teeth of the brisk
trade wind. This necessitated frequent tacks, so that, overhead, the mainsail was ever swooping across from port tack to starboard tack and back again, making air- noises like the swish of wings, sharply rat-tat-tatting its reef points and loudly crashing its mainsheet gear along the traveller.
Then some deep-water sailor, from the waist of the ship, lifted a rich tenor voice in the "Song of the
Trade Wind":
We had one violent storm, and were under a necessity of steering westward to get into the
trade wind, which holds for above sixty leagues.
The
trade wind was blowing fresh, and by scores of canoes they ran us down.
Once back at the surface, some of this air flows back to the tropics, giving the familiar
trade winds that dominate weather in the Caribbean.
