HEAVY SEAS OF THE SOUTH PACIFIC. 217 



time to time visited the islands, but no one has been 

 tempted to remain. The excessive rainfall, which is 

 more continuous in summer than in winter, makes 

 them unfit for the residence of civilized man ; but it 

 seems probable that Fuegians transported there would 

 find conditions favourable to their constitution and 

 habits of life. It is another question whether the 

 world would be any the better for the multiplication 

 of so low a type of humanity. 



In the afternoon, as the sea was running very high, 

 the captain set the ship's head to the wind. We saw 

 him but once, and perceived an anxious expression 

 on his usually jovial countenance. It afterwards came 

 out that he apprehended the continuance of the gale, 

 in which case he might not have ventured to put the 

 helm round so as to enter the Gulf of Penas. At 

 nightfall, however, the wind fell off, and by midnight 

 the weather was nearly calm, though the ship gave us 

 little rest from the ceaseless rolling. During all this 

 time sounds that issued at intervals from the cabin of 

 the Peruvian lady and her children showed that what 

 was merely a bore to us was to them real misery. I 

 have often asked myself whether there is something 

 about a sea-voyage that develops our natural selfish- 

 ness, or whether it is because one knows that the 

 suffering is temporary and has no bad results, that 

 one takes so little heed of the really grievous condition 

 of travellers who are unable to bear the movement of 

 the sea. A voyage with sea-sick passengers, especially 

 in bad weather, when one is confined to the saloon, 

 is a good deal like being lodged in one of the prisons 

 of the Spanish inquisition while torture was freely 



