HAD ENOUGH OF SURVEYING. 
83 
of that sort: we were fit for any thing bat a return 
to our labours. 
As a general thingj one of ns made it convenient to 
visit our helpless shipmates daily. They were a superior 
class of men to the general run of sailors; they could all 
read^ and they derived great satisfaction from the papers 
which we took them. This hospital of the doctor's was 
situated outside of the city, in the midst of liis vast nut- 
meg-plantation ; and as we now, in the continuation 
of our drive, j^assed through a wide gateway and en- 
tered upon the latter sweet-smelling hundred-acre lot, 
we met the owner on his way into town. He turned 
and accompanied us back to the hospital, where we 
found two men delirious but the others doing better. I 
may as well remark here that, after keeping the schooner 
at anchor some weeks in hopes of their recovery, we 
were finally forced to leave three of them in charge 
of the consul, with instructions to forward them to us 
should they recover. They did recover during the next 
month, and, having had enough of surveying, took care 
to forward themselves ofl‘ by the first ship. They de- 
scried^ and I could not blame them; for the work on 
which we were to be steadily engaged for years was 
enough to break down jackasses, and they were not 
paid half the wages they could command in merchant- 
ships for doing half the amount of work. It is to be 
hoped that Congress will reward the men who were too 
honest to deseii:, and who returned to their homes after 
that miserable cruise with bowed heads and broken 
frames, the wrecks of what they were at its com- 
mencement. 
