MISERIES OF A SEA-VOYAGE. 13 



selves in their wash-basins. Fortunately for me, though 

 at times I have felt odd, I am never sea-sick, but in full 

 possession of my senses, so that I could observe all that 

 passed, and read, and even write, and, as Capt. Cuttle 

 would say, " make a note of it ; " hence nothing was 

 lost to me, and in their lucid intervals I had opportunities of 

 much conversation with the men of the country in whose 

 land I was so anxious to arrive anxious indeed, for, of 

 all places that so soon pall upon the passenger's mind, 

 there is none that gets so wearisome as the unvaried 

 confinement of a ship at sea. At night the same cramped 

 crib to lie in, never long enough for a man of more than 

 six feet one, and therefore too short for me, and always 

 too cold or too hot. The same noises g6*ing on in the 

 timbers of the vessel and panels of your berth ; in mine, 

 in the " Africa," it was as if all the rats and mice on earth 

 had distressfully combined with innumerable sucking-pigs 

 and an old sow or two, and some ducks, aided by the 

 constant knocking of little hammers variously placed, to 

 raise dins against going to sleep ; and when I left my. 

 berth a horrible admixture of incongruous smells assailed 

 me from kitchen, crevice, chimney, cabin, and cockpit, and 

 it was only on deck that I could catch the sweets of untram 

 melled air. Every person, of whatever degree, from the 

 United States, seemed pleased to make my acquaintance, 

 and proffer me the hand of good-fellowship. " Yes, sir ; " 

 I can't help using these two words in confirmation of this, 

 though they some of our cousins over the water 

 use them so repeatedly and oddly when they mean no 

 thing confirmatory at all. 



There was scarce one of these gentlemen that did not 

 give me a hearty invitation to his house, and press me to 

 come there, many of them adding, " You can't mistake 



