The _Spray_ arrived next day off Galets, Reunion, and a pilot came out and spoke her.

I handed him a Mauritius paper and continued on my voyage; for rollers were running heavily at the time, and it was not practicable to make a landing.

From Reunion I shaped a course direct for Cape St.Mary, Madagascar.
The sloop was now drawing near the limits of the trade-wind, and the strong breeze that had carried her with free sheets the many thousands of miles from Sandy Cape, Australia, fell lighter each day until October 30, when it was altogether calm, and a motionless sea held her in a hushed world.

I furled the sails at evening, sat down on deck, and enjoyed the vast stillness of the night.
October 31 a light east-northeast breeze sprang up, and the sloop passed Cape St.Mary about noon.

On the 6th, 7th, 8th, and 9th of November, in the Mozambique Channel, she experienced a hard gale of wind from the southwest.