Drill and exercise were now the order of the day during the hours of light, and as the sun set and the tropic night came rushing swiftly up over the yet glowing sky, chessboards and backgammon-boards were brought out, and discussions, social, political, and literary, divided the long hours of inaction with the yarn and the song, and other mild but not ineffectual distractions of life at sea.
Still it was with feelings of no small satisfaction that "green water" was again reached, and the Sumter found herself within about ninety miles of the (Dutch) Guiana coast.

Hopes were now entertained of soon reaching Maranham, but the next day showed them to be fallacious.

A strong northerly current had set in, and, in addition to this drawback, it was discovered that the defalcations of the Port of Spain coal merchants were more serious than had been supposed, and there was not sufficient fuel left for the run.

Next day matters were worse rather than better.

The northerly current was running at the extraordinary rate of sixty miles in the twenty-four hours, a speed equal to that of the Gulf Stream in its narrowest part.