TEMPTING VIANDS. 43 



pestuous coast, most of the time half under water. A 

 hurricane blew during the greater part of the voyage, and 

 in ten days after leaving Algoa Bay we were off Cape 

 L'Agulhas, or 300 miles further from our destination 

 than when we started. 



I should not have been so much annoyed, had there 

 been anything to eat or drink ; but the beer was all 

 finished in three days : wine there was none, with the 

 exception of a composition of Cape stuff, that had been 

 shaken up into the appearance of a pot of blacking, and 

 was very like vinegar in taste. A dish of pork swimming 

 in its own fat was our usual meal, with the exception of 

 some mutton, which I declined, in consequence of having 

 seen the sheep die a death all but natural. This fate 

 was only prevented by the wonderful activity of a sailor, 

 who acted as butcher, and who, on seeing from aloft the 

 state of affairs, came down one of the back stays by the 

 run, and stuck his knife into the I am afraid to say which 

 sheep, or mutton. He declared, however, that it was 

 sheep, while the fat Dutchman " verdamt" it was mutton. 

 A jury of the captain and mate was called, who took evi- 

 dence, and decided that the sheep had been fairly killed. 



Another delicacy with which we were favoured was 

 some water in which a cabbage was daily boiled; this 

 composition the captain dignified with the name of soup ; 

 it came day after day, and was worse each time while 

 around the taffrail ten more cabbages hung. 



I was sitting one day beside the Dutchman, improving 

 my knowledge of his language, when I noticed that he 

 had been for some time looking with a melancholy sort 



