Oidhrcak of Cholera on Board. 177 



were cntcrlnfT- Gaspar Straits, one of tlie sliip's boys fell ill 

 with all the symptoms of the Asiatic pestilence, and two 

 days after the man appointed to attend him was similarly 

 seized. Every necessary precaution was taken, the crew 

 were kept as much as possible on deck, the band played fre- 

 quently, in order to keep up cheerfulness, and thus by great 

 good fortune the malady was confined to the two individuals 

 seized. The attendant ere long recovered, but the lad, after 

 the choleraic symptoms had subsided, gradually fell into a 

 typhoid state, under which, despite the utmost medical skill, 

 he succumbed on the afternoon of May 4th. Owing 

 to the rapidity with which decomposition sets in in organic 

 structm'es in these hot latitudes, it was at once arranged that 

 the body should be committed to the deep the same evening. 

 It was the first occasion throughout the voyage that we had 

 to perform this sad but most impressive ceremony. The 

 officers and crew mustered on the deck. The body wrapped 

 in an ensign lay upon a platform, close to the man-ropes on 

 the starboard side. The chaplain prayed over the cor23se of 

 one so young, about to rest in the bosom of ocean far from 

 friends and family, after which there was a dull hollow 

 sound; the sea had got his prey, the waves closed with 

 sullen glee over their booty, — and all was over ! 



In the course of the passage we also celebrated a funeral 

 service on board for Austria's great, never-to-be-forgotten 

 commander. Field-marshal Radetzky, of whose death we had 



VOL. II. 



