338 WHALING AND FISHING. 



crew is not too powerful. Wearied, sore, chafed 



in every limb, till the blood flowed from our feet 



s we ran aloft, and from oui hands as we tugged 



t sails or painfully dragged heavy chain-cables 



ubout the deck, we at length arrived in the Downs. 



Here the pilot declared it necessary to procure 

 A reinforcement of men from shore. And as the 

 British Pilot makes his orders obeyed by captain 

 as well as men, our labors were lightened by half 

 i dozen hands, who were engaged to assist in 

 taking the vessel into hei dock. Yet another day 

 of hard labor, and with somewhat joyful hearts 

 we were gliding up the crooked Thames, behind a 

 lowboat. The following morning we hauled the 

 vessel into her dock and left her. This was on 

 the one hundredth and thirty-sixth day since we 

 sailed from Port Louis. 



Going .up to the " Sailor's Home," I deposited 

 my luggage, had a refreshing bath, trimmed my 

 numerous sores, and at eleven o'clock retired to 

 my bed, preferring sleep to the dinner which, was 

 ready an hour afterward. 



My rest, undisturbed by many- dreams, was not 

 broken till nine o'clock the following morning. 

 These twenty-two hours of sleep restored in some 

 degree my usual elasticity, and after another im- 

 mersion in cold water, and a hearty breakfast, I 

 was almost myself again. 



I had been in London before, and well knew 

 that no time was to be lost in securing a vessel 

 There is nearly always, in that port a surplus of 



