The wind is at N.N.E.
and moderate, and the barometer has been rising all day, though it has not been a tenth below 30.21; it is now (4 P.M.) 30.15, so we shall probably not feel the gale here.
_Thursday, January 1st_ .-- The first day of the new year.
What will it bring forth?
The Almighty for a wise purpose hides future events from the eyes of mortals, and all we can do is to perform well our parts, and trust the rest to His guidance.

Success, as a general rule, attends him who is vigilant and active.

It is useful to look back on the first day of the new year and see how we have spent the past; what errors we have committed, and of what faults we have been guilty, that we may in the future avoid the one and reform the other.
Although the wind blew pretty fresh during the past night, we did not feel the gale in any force; and to-day it has moderated, and the weather become fine again.

Still caulking and painting.
The former seems to be an interminable job with our small gang of caulkers.

In the afternoon a brig approached the island, near enough to be seen, hull up, from the deck.