[Illustration: BELOW DECK IN THE TROPICS.]
The north-east trades carried the _Pera_ almost to the equator, then came a period of calm in a torrid temperature that drove everybody to the shelter of the double awning over the deck, and made them sigh for cooler latitudes. Heavy clothing was at a discount, and the lightest garments were found more than sufficient. Social rules were suspended, and pajamas were worn altogether, except at dinner-time, when light suits of linen took their place. Dinner was served on deck beneath the awning, and the ice-machine was kept in constant action to supply ice for the use of the sweltering travellers. Happily this state of affairs did not last long; as soon as the _Pera_ entered the calm belt the funnel was hoisted, fires were started, the equator was crossed triumphantly, and the yacht in due time caught the south-east trades, and was once more turned into a sailing-craft.
As they left the equator behind them the north star disappeared below the horizon, and the Southern Cross, that magnificent constellation of the antarctic heavens, came into view. Frank regretted that they could not look at it with a powerful telescope, when he learned from the captain of the _Pera_ that there is a brilliant cluster of stars in the centre of the Cross, invisible to the unassisted eye, and only revealed by a strong glass. Farther south their attention was absorbed by the Magellan clouds, two nebulæ of stars so densely packed together and so far away that they resemble light fleecy clouds more than anything else.
[Illustration: ON THE COAST OF THE MARQUESAS.]
In a direct line it is about two thousand miles from Honolulu to the outermost of the Marquesas group. The log of the _Pera_ showed a run of 2180 miles, and on the morning of the sixteenth day of the voyage the lookout gave the welcome announcement that land was in sight. Colonel Bush had given directions for the yacht to proceed direct to Nookaheeva Bay, the best harbor in the Marquesas group, and consequently the travellers contented themselves with distant views of the outer islands that lay in their course. The islands are evidently of volcanic origin, as they present high peaks rising two or three thousand feet, and in some places their sides are almost precipitous. With a glass, or even with the unaided eye, it was easy to perceive that the sides of the mountains and the valleys enclosed between them were thickly clothed with tropical trees and undergrowth, that extended down close to the water's edge.