18 



'FATHER FRUSHARD: 



tant above 1000 miles. Under all circumstances 

 the distance was undesirable ; moreover, violent 

 squalls between the Persian Gulf and Cape 

 Guardafui sometimes depress the mercury half 

 an inch. I shall again refer to this point in 

 Chapter V. 



' Father Frushard 9 was genial, as usual, and 

 under his command every soul was happy. We 

 greatly enjoyed the order, coolness, and cleanli- 

 ness of a ship of war, after the confusion, the 

 caloric, and the manifold impurities of a Red Sea 

 passenger-packet. Here were no rattling, heav- 

 ing throbs, making you tremulous as a jelly 

 in the Caniculi ; no coal-smoke, intrusive as 

 on a German Eisen-bahn ; no thirst-maddened 

 (cock-) 6 roaches ' exploring the entrance to man's 

 stomach ; no cabins rank with sulphuretted hy- 

 drogen ; no decks whereon pallid and jaundiced 

 passengers shake convulsed shoulders as they 

 rush to and from the bulwarks and the taffrail. 

 Also no c starboard and larboard exclusiveness ' ; 

 of flirting abigails tending portly and majestic 

 dames, who look crooked beyond the salvation- 

 pale of their own very small c set ' ; no peppery 

 civilians rubbing skirts against heedless ' grif- 

 fins ' ; nor fair lips maltreating the ' hapless letter 

 II ' ; nor officers singing lullabies to their etiol- 



