13 



perpetual tempestuous weather which we have ex- 

 perienced has so shaken the planks of the vessel, 

 that the sea enters at all quarters. About one 

 o'clock in the morning I was saluted by a stream 

 of water, which poured down exactly upon my 

 face, and obliged me to shift my lodgings. The 

 carpenter had been made aware that there was a 

 leak in my cabin, and ordered to caulk the seams ; 

 but, I suppose, he thought that during only a two 

 months' voyage, the rain might very possibly never 

 find out the hole, and that it would be quite time 

 enough to apply the remedy when I should have 

 felt the inconvenience. The best is, that the 

 carpenter happening to be at work in the next 

 cabin when the water came down upon me, I 

 desired him to call my servant, in order that I 

 might get up, on account of the leak ; on which he 

 told me " that the leak could not be helped ; " 

 grumbled a good deal at calling up the servant ; 

 and seemed to think me not a little unreasonable 

 for not lying quietly, and suffering myself to be 

 pumped upon by this shower-bath of his own pro- 

 viding. 



But if the water gets into the ship, on the 

 other hand, last night the poor old steward was 

 very near getting out of it. In the thick of the 

 storm he was carrying some grog to the mate, when 

 a gun, which drove against him, threw him off his 

 balance, and he was just passing through one of the 

 port-holes, when, luckily, he caught hold of a rope, 



