SAILORS. 59 



ashore, for the poor people can't get bread for all 

 that are already on the island" was the discour- 

 aging remark of a boatsteerer who had been taken 

 into their confidence; and so the idea of running 

 away was abandoned. 



As for myself I had long since become haid- 

 ened to such disappointments, and although jusl 

 as eager to have a run ashore as any one, was able 

 to philosophize on the disappointment of our 

 hopes. I think the life of a man before the mast 

 is calculated to make a stoic of any ono. In no 

 other condition that I know of, are all the hopes, 

 aims and desires of one man placed so completely 

 in the keeping of another whose interests fur- 

 thermore almost invariably clash with those of his 

 subject. No where else are the keenest desires so 

 invariably doomed to disappointment in no other 

 situation is one obliged, for peace of mind sake, to 

 become so utterly apathetic. The fact is, sailors 

 should be brutes not men. 



By our poor Portuguese the compulsory stay on 

 board was doubtless more keenly felt than by any 

 others. It was their fatherland and to theii 

 credit I must say that I found them invariably to 

 cherish a strong love for it, poor and rude though 

 it may be. But after the first excitement of see- 

 ing and speaking to the people in the shore -boats. 

 was over, they settled down into a calm, desponding 

 sort of enjoyment, and in the dog watch gathered 

 into a little knot upon the top-gallant forecastle, 

 and gazing upon the loved shore, talked of home, 



