278 THE FOREST AND THE FIELD. 



the mild pure air of heaven until the last — the 

 closing scene. We brought more than twenty 

 invalids of both sexes from England, but the wea- 

 ther was so rough, that none of them showed up 

 until after we had anchored ; and some were in 

 such an exhausted state from sea-sickness, that 

 they had to be carried ashore. 



Landing at the Loo Rock, Stanhope Freeman, 

 the Governor of Lagos, Mr. Winwood Reade, my 

 compagnon de voyage, (who never left his bunk from 

 the day we left Liverpool until we arrived at 

 Madeira) — and half-a-dozen others, made the best 

 of our way to Hollway's Hotel, where we found 

 an excellent dinner provided, to which we did 

 ample justice, the cuisine on board being simply 

 execrable, and the wines worse, if possible. 



The motto of the African Company, *' Spero 

 meliora" is very conspicuously inscribed on the 

 dinner-plates of the steamers, and it is certainly a 

 very appropriate one ; for the viands were so bad 

 that we were always hoping for something better, 

 but invariably met with disappointment. In vain 

 Captain Wylde (a first-rate seaman and a kind- 



