EMIGRANT PASSENGERS. 23 



after the body had disappeared beneath the blue water, the 

 doctor took advantage of the solemn moment again to appeal 

 to him. 



&quot; Captain, there are three hundred souls in this ship &quot; 



&quot;Belay that, doctor; I ll see every soul of em in 

 Davy s locker, sir, before I ll put my ship back for your 

 cursed physic.&quot; 



The doctor said no more, but turned away with a heavy 

 heart to do his duty as best he could. 



I cannot describe the horrors of that passage as he would. 

 Nevertheless, as far as simple numbers can give it, you shall 

 have the result. 



Out of those three hundred souls, before the ship reached 

 New York, there died one, and he, the doctor declared most 

 soberly, was a very old man, and half dead with a chronic 

 (something) when he came on board. So much for burnt 

 chalk and fresh air ! 



But seriously, this story, which, as I have repeated it, I 

 believe is essentially true, though not in itself a painful one, 

 not the less strikingly shows with what villanous barbarity, 

 by disregard or evasion of the laws of England, and the 

 neglect or connivance of the port officers, the emigrant traffic 

 is carried on. Some of the accounts of the three other 

 medical men on board, who are also returning from passages 

 in emigrant ships, would disgust a slave-trader. They say 

 that many of the passengers will never go on deck unless 

 they are driven or carried, and frequently the number of 

 these is so great, that it is impossible to force them out of 

 their berths, and they sometimes lie in them in the most 

 filthy manner possible, without ever stepping out from the 

 first heave of the sickening sea .till the American pilot is 

 received on board. Then their wives, husbands, children, as 

 the case may be, who have served them with food during 



