IN THE TIME OF PEACE. 257 



" No, never ! I promise never to put my foot on board a ship 

 again as long as I live. Do put me on shore." 



"Very well; there is a fishing-boat in sight, and if I can get her 

 alongside, you shall go on shore." 



Guns were fired, but it was no use ; even had she noticed our 

 signals, which she did not, it would have been impossible for me to 

 go on board, the sea was running so high. I was therefore obliged 

 to weather it out the best way I could ; and in ten days I was en- 

 joying my trip, and laughing at the idea of wanting to go on shore. 



We now skimmed merrily over the domains of old Neptune ; and, 

 having a fine nine knot breeze, a couple of points abaft the beam, we 

 made rapid strides to the halting-place, where the marine deity wel- 

 comes his sons. The visit of his goclship has been told so often, that I 

 will not repeat it, as tarring and ducking obnoxious individuals is much 

 the same in all accounts of the ceremony. At last all was over, his 

 godship resumed his mortal dress, and appeared in his old situation of 

 boatswain's mate, and his wife was in the less feminine attire of a 

 a mizen-topman. Order was restored, and fair winds wafted us 

 pleasantly over the trackless ocean. The monotony of a sea-voyage 

 was again undisturbed by any, save the catching of a fish, or the 

 splendid and undescribable sublimity of a sunrise or sunset at sea. 



At last Rio de Janeiro was in sight one of the finest harbours I 

 ever saw : its description would be long, and, thanks to the indefa- 

 tigable labours of the numerous and persevering travellers, stale to 

 most readers. Our spirits, that had been so high, were damped on 

 our entrance to Rio by the death of one of our best sailors, who lost 

 his life by falling from the mast-head. The poor fellow was look-out 

 man at the foretopmast head, and was just coming down at sunset, 

 when one of the ratlines gave way as he was coming carelessly clown, 

 his foot slipped, and not being able to regain himself, he fell over- 

 board, striking his head in his fall against the shank of the best 

 bower anchor. A boat was immediately lowered without stopping 

 the ship, for we had hardly steerage way at the time ; he was picked 

 up, and every means used by the surgeon to restore him, but in vain 

 life was extinct. The poor fellow was placed on a grating, with a 

 union Jack thrown over him (the custom in such cases in the navy), 

 and put aft under the poop to be buried on our arrival. Being but a 

 small ship's company, we felt the loss of one more than a larger ship 

 would of several ; being confined in so small a space, and having so 

 few hands (only 35), we knew every face, and one was sensibly 

 missed. The next morning we anchored in Rio harbour, and during 

 the day our unfortunate shipmate was borne to the grave by his 

 messmates, followed by the whole ship's company and officers ; three 

 volleys were fired over the grave, and we returned on board. Our 

 shipmate in his grave, we recovered our usual spirits ; not that he 

 was forgotten but the life of a sailor obliges him so constantly to 

 sustain losses by death or change of situation, and his duties being 

 such as to engross almost all his thoughts, he soon discharges all out- 

 ward appearance of regret ; this not from any want of feeling, for, 

 taken in a body, I know no class of men whose feelings are so acute 

 as those of sailors but from the peculiar nature of his duties and his 



