the "medical comforts" into the bargain;
out of which all sorts of inconvenience, waste
of labour, and confusion, was sure to arise
during the voyage, and on arriving at our
destination. As for the Rodneyrig, he said,
she was a very good ship for cargo, and so
forth, but she had never been built as a
passenger ship, and even what could have
been done to remedy this had not been
attempted. I told him that only half, at most,
of the cabins below had scuttles to them,
and these were so near to the water, that
they could only be opened to admit air in
smoothish weather, or only at times on one
side of the ship, and still at the mercy of a
deluge from an accidental wave splashing
up or running higher than the rest. He
said, "Shameful!" I quite dreaded the
tropics, expecting to be suffocated.

July 9th.—A horrid stench from the after
hatchway about twelve o'clock. Mr. Rokeby
below serving out preserved meat in tin cases,
which emitted this effluvia directly they were
opened. Twenty or thirty in succession being
found alike; and the captain with Dr. Bannister
having been to inspect them (of course they
hadn't a word to say), Mr. Rokeby was
directed to throw them overboard. This was
done, to the great delight of the intermediates;
not, apparently, so much on account of getting
rid of the nuisance, as from the excitement of
seeing something condemned and executed.
Mr. Rokeby was directed to get out some
cases of preserved herrings instead. He did
so, but on the first incision of his iron instrument
in the top of the case there was a
hissing sound, with a spurt-up of juice, and
one of the most disgusting fumes imaginable.
The next case was the same—and the next
half-dozen—and the next score. It was
shocking. All the time the hatchways were
crowded by the intermediate passengers,
eagerly inhaling it, and crying out "Oh! pah!
pheu!" while Mr. Rokeby continued to
accommodate them with the fumes of case after
case, the same being diffused on its way up
from the hold wherein he opened them, all
through the between decks. He stopped at
the sixty-eighth case, being of a sickly yellow
in the face; and then it occurred to somebody
to cry out that it would be better for
himself and everybody else below if he would
open such cases on the upper deck, and have
them thrown overboard the instant the
effluvia told their condition. The captain
and Dr. Bannister saw the sense of this.
The delight of the intermediates was
considerably enhanced by forty more six-pound
cases of herrings being examined and handed
over to them to throw overboard. "Ah,"
said the captain, as he walked away,
"that's a sad waste of provisions; Messrs.
Saltash and Pincher had better have paid a
trifle more to the contractors. Penny wise
and pound foolish." For this sentiment the
intermediates cheered him.

July 10th.—A sailor fell overboard, and was
drowned before a boat could be cleared of
the lumber in her, and lowered down. He
was hauling upon a rope, which gave way
suddenly. It was suggested that, perhaps,
he was drunk; and Captain Pennysage said,
he was afraid poor Tom had been often in
that state. The carpenter inquired of Dr.
Bannister, if so be that Tom had been drunk,
how that should make a rope break? He
must have been very drunk indeed to "give
it" to the rope.

Sunday, July 11th.—Passed the island of
Madeira. Thought I could feel the beauty
of the climate from the soft hues and tints of
the mountains. It looked a place for oranges
in the open air. Dr. Bannister read prayers on
deck. Captain Pennysage was very devout.
Often heard a little buzz of voices from the
'tween decks during the service. Found afterwards
that Mr. Rokeby had been carrying on
a very brisk trade in rum and tobacco on the
captain's private account nearly the whole
time; but that his weights and measures
were now and then the subject of a little
dispute.

July I2th.—The ship "lying her course"
they said. Was extremely glad to hear this,
as she had been lying with her head nearly
the opposite way we wanted to go, on several
occasions, I had heard, since we left
Plymouth. It did not strike me that we should
make a very quick passage. I was very sick
of it. Everything so salt.

July 13th.—The self-resources of the
passengers for passing their tedious hours, were
at the lowest ebb, and the means they adopted
to amuse each other were not very much
better. On the poop deck the gentlemen
smoked cigars and tried to read, and the
ladies did fancy work and tried to read a little
too. They inquired the ship's course since
yesterday at twelve o'clock, and how long it
wanted to dinner. In the evening they walked
up and down—got up a little very queer
singing, came and looked over the rail to
see how we were amusing ourselves, then
descended to tea, and sometimes a rubber of
whist, after which they disappeared till next
morning when the bell rang for breakfast.
As for the intermediates, their occupations and
amusements were limited to smoking, spitting,
and lounging about all day, during the time
they were not eating or drinking. The
eating and drinking were the only great
points of interest with them, viz., from meal
to meal, and from day to day, and from week
to week. In the evening there was occasionally
an attempt to be genial, and a few songs were
sung with choruses, and there was some
dancing. The choruses showed manifest signs
of rapid improvement, as there were some
good voices, and one or two who knew how
to drill them; the dancing also got better
each time, and especially after a sailor had
made a tambourine out of one of the sheepskins,
cleared of its wool, dried in the sun,
and stretched across the lid of a flour cask.