letter xx.] THE SCHOONER "JENNY." 189 



aries' wives and children were exposed in every migration for 

 nearly forty years. 



When I reached the wharf at Honolulu the sight of the 

 Jenny, the small sixty-ton schooner by which I was to travel, 

 nearly made me give up this pleasant plan, so small she looked, 

 and so cumbered with natives and their accompaniments, of 

 mats, dogs, and calabashes of fioi, ' But she is clean, and as 

 sweet as a boat can be which carries through the tropics cattle, 

 hides, sugar, and molasses. She is very low in the water, her 

 deck is the real ''fisherman's walk, two steps and overboard;" 

 and on this occasion was occupied solely by natives. The 

 Attorney-General and Mrs. Judd were to have been my fellow 

 voyagers, but my disappointment at their non-appearance was 

 considerably mitigated by the fact that there was not stowage 

 room' for more than one white passenger ! Mrs. Dexter pitied 

 me heartily, for it made her quite ill to look down the cabin 

 hatch; but I convinced her that no inconveniences are legiti- 

 mate subjects for sympathy which are endured in the pursuit of 

 pleasure. There was just room on deck for me to sit on 

 a box, and the obliging, gentlemanly master, who, with his 

 son and myself, were the only whites on board, sat on the 

 taffrail. 



The Jenny spread her white duck sails, glided gracefully 

 away from the wharf, and bounded through the coral reef ; the 

 red sunlight faded, the stars came out, the Honolulu light went 

 down in the distance, and in two hours the little craft was out 

 of sight of land on the broad, crisp Pacific. It was so chilly, 

 that after admiring as long as I could, I dived into the cabin, a 

 mere den, with a table, and a berth on each side, in one of 

 which I lay down, and the other was alternately occupied by 

 the captain and his son. But limited as I thought it, boards 

 have been placed across on some occasions, and eleven whites 

 have been packed into a space six feet by eight ! The heat 

 and suffocation were nearly intolerable, the black flies swarmed, 

 the mosquitos were countless and vicious, the fleas agile beyond 

 anything, and the cockroaches gigantic. Some of the finer 

 cargo was in the cabin, and large rats, only too visible by the 

 light of a swinging lamp, were assailing it, and one with a por- 

 tentous tail ran over my berth more than once, producing a 

 stampede among the cockroaches each time. I have seldom 

 spent a more miserable night, though there was the extreme 

 satisfaction of knowing that every inch of canvas was 

 drawing. 



