V.MANILA.—HOMEWARD BOUND.

My country, sir, is not a single spotOf such a mould, or fixed to such a clime;No! ’tis the social circle of my friends,The loved community in which I’m linked,And in whose welfare all my wishes centre.Miller’sMahomet.

My country, sir, is not a single spot

Of such a mould, or fixed to such a clime;

No! ’tis the social circle of my friends,

The loved community in which I’m linked,

And in whose welfare all my wishes centre.

Miller’sMahomet.

* * * * *

Whose heart has ne’er within him burnedAs home his footsteps he hath turnedFrom wandering on a foreign strand?W. Scott;Lay of the Last Minstrel.

Whose heart has ne’er within him burnedAs home his footsteps he hath turnedFrom wandering on a foreign strand?

Whose heart has ne’er within him burned

As home his footsteps he hath turned

From wandering on a foreign strand?

W. Scott;Lay of the Last Minstrel.

* * * * *

There blend the ties that strengthenOur hearts in hours of grief,The silver links that lengthenJoy’s visits when most brief.Then dost thou sigh for pleasure?Oh! do not widely roam,But seek that hidden treasureAt home, dear home!Bernard Barton.

There blend the ties that strengthen

Our hearts in hours of grief,

The silver links that lengthen

Joy’s visits when most brief.

Then dost thou sigh for pleasure?

Oh! do not widely roam,

But seek that hidden treasure

At home, dear home!

Bernard Barton.

Onthe 22d of November we left Hong Kong for Manila, our agents concluding to wait no longer for hemp to fall, but to load the ship with sugar. Wetook in three million pounds, enough, we were told, to supply our whole country one day.

We reached Manila Bay Dec. 1, but we would not have wondered had we been weeks, instead of five days, in contest with the current and head winds. One day we tacked fourteen times off Manila. At length we dropped anchor in the spacious roadstead, and waited for the health officers and the custom-house officials to inspect us. No one is allowed to have any communication with a vessel until she is officially visited. Steam-tugs would be an advantage to weary mariners contending against the current in sight of anchorage.

We were the guests of a gentleman and his wife, he a member of the house of Messrs. Peele, Hubbell, & Co.60We were there seven weeks, and, even if delicacypermitted, language would fail in the attempt to express what we enjoyed in that beautiful house. Situated at one end of the city in the parish of Santa Ana we were removed from the noise and tumult of business. The river runs near the house with a current of at least four miles an hour, bringing down, day by day, literally innumerable wild herbage plants washed from the lakes in the country. Few things ever gave me a more vivid idea of infinitude than that ceaseless flow of herbage. Immense plaintain-leaves stood round the house looking like the blades of huge oars; the banana hung in large clusters; the garden was filled with many things to delight the eye. The house covered a large area. You enter it by a spacious driveway, roofed over with the main building. Stone steps lead up to the story on which are all the rooms in the house, high and wide, opening into the large hall. Insteadof carpets, floors here are polished, by rubbing them with the plaintain-leaf. The house was cool and in all respects most comfortable. The eye is refreshed by constant verdure, the grass in December and January having the brilliant green which our early grass presents in the month of June. It seemed strange to be riding in open carriages at Christmas-time and January, with ladies in muslin dresses, or requiring only light shawls. The atmosphere is clear, and the stars have so peculiar a lustre as to be the subject of remark by foreigners. The river runs about fifteen miles to a lake, by cocoanut groves, and in some places by steep cliffs nearly two hundred and fifty feet on each side, covered with foliage, and having small cascades. In the river there are as many as twenty-eight rapids. Some of our party ascended them in canoes, spending two days on an excursion with a company. Oneevening a party of gentlemen took a small steamer, the private property of a friend, and went with us up to the lake. It was a moonlight night; the East-Indian scenery, the curves in the stream, and at last the scenery of the lake, made the excursion enchanting.

The society in Manila, composed of American, English, Scotch, and Spanish people, was delightful. Their hospitalities, entertainments, and numberless courtesies make deep impressions upon a visitor. There are no unpleasant distinctions among them; they maintain an agreeable freedom in their intercourse. Indeed one cannot spend a few days in Manila without feeling glad if it happens to be at the close of a long tour; for as it will be most likely to be pronounced the climax of his social experience, it will be appropriate to leave it at the close.

I used to drive with Mr. Peirce when hevisited the sugar mills where his House were obtaining their supply of sugar to load our ship. We saw the crude material just from the cane, drying in the sun. I remember that on our passage home from Manila the cabin table happened to be short of sugar; but having three million pounds on board we ventured to draw on the cargo for a supply. When it came on table from the hold, the sight of it made us feel that sugar refinery was far from being a luxury, for it was hard to believe that the dark, coarse stuff could ever become white powdered sugar. Could we but shut our eyes, as we were inclined to do when we put it into our cups, we could draw from it a power of sweetness, though with a large tare and tret of original fibrous matter.

I visited the great cigar factories and imagined how my friends, lay and clerical,would envy me the privilege. But I could not be in the atmosphere of the factory ten minutes without experiencing a feeling akin to vertigo, which made me retreat to the open air. By going out and in several times I succeeded in gratifying my curiosity. The gentlemanly foreman begged me to take some of his products as specimens. I told him I could not appreciate them. He said if I would allow him to give me only one he was sure that he could overcome my repugnance. He went to a private drawer and drew out one on which he duly expatiated, then wrapped it in a paper and gave it to me. It is now in my drawer at home, two years old, well seasoned; waiting for my decision whether it will be safe to give it to some clerical friend who will promise that he will leave off smoking if I will treat his resolution with this very choicest Manila. Or would the gift have a powerful effect in an opposite direction?

We were near the old Church of Santa Ana, whose bells many times a day remind the faithful of their devotions. They were played skilfully, with a loud noise and with a vivacity such as I never before heard from bells. On one bell a man would drum a tune, the military music on a church bell having a decidedly frivolous effect. At six o’clock in the afternoon, the native inhabitants pause wherever they may happen to be at the vesper bell, and perform their devotions. I frequently met the Archbishop and his secretary in an evening walk, who would stop suddenly when the bell struck and, uncovering their heads, would repeat their prayers. I visited most of the churches. Imposture nowhere reigns with more open demands upon the credulity of the people. In one of the churches there are large paintings of the “Holy Girdle,” whose marvellouscures, and power over serpents, and the bestowment of blessings in answer to faith in it, are described in large letters. Each of the many parishes has a monthly procession in which the population join. One evening we encountered a procession which blocked the streets for two hours. Four thousand women in black filled each side of the wide street, chanting Scripture and prayers, the men occupying the middle of the street with an imposing show of images of canonized persons surrounded with lighted chandeliers. Each woman in this procession had a lighted wax candle which she had bought of the priests, to be returned to them after the march. This is the source of a large revenue to the Church. These processions keep up a lively enthusiasm among the people.

The manufacture of the Pina articles employs the people at home. These exquisite articles, such as veils, handkerchiefs, &c., are made of the fibre of the pine-apple; at almost every house in some of the poorer parts of the city you see this work on small frames, exposed to the sun.

The men are very many of them occupied in the training of game-cocks; frequently every tenth man you meet will have one of these birds under his arm.

One Sabbath we were told there was a fight between a tiger and a buffalo on exhibition. The buffaloes are meek, docile animals, used instead of oxen. Their horns are wide-spread and very long. The buffalo took the tiger on his horns, threw him high, and the fall indisposed him for further effort.

Some of the most beautiful objects here are the trees filled with fire-flies. Sometimes all along a road the trees will be crowned with the small creatures, their light constantly emitted; so that the tree looks as though it were filled with gems. Few sights are more attractive.

The inhabitants resort in the evening to the Pier, which is a solid structure extending a sixteenth of a mile into the bay, a sea-view on all sides; and once a week there is music by the bands, which draws crowds. Much of this Spanish music is more sentimental than we are accustomed to hear addressed to the populace, exciting a thoughtful attention.

Manila is the capital of Luzon, one of thePhilippine Islands. The climate in December and January was intensely hot. After nine o’clock in the morning, it was not agreeable to be out of doors, even to drive; but at five in the afternoon, and in the evening, the cool sea-breezes made it pleasant to be abroad.

Religious services are sustained on Sabbath evenings by a few christian friends at the house of one of their number, but there is no public place of Protestant worship there. It was instructive to go from China, from the depths of heathen idolatry, into the depths of formalism under the name of Christianity. You question whether you have advanced at all into the light of truth; for though it is a relief to be where the Scriptures and the names and forms of christianity are heard and seen, you are impressedwith the bias of the human heart to idolatry. To come from heathenism in China, and Roman Catholic superstition in Manila, into christian temples here at home, makes you wonder that only a certain number of leagues of salt water separate between us and such places as Canton or Manila.

Of all the fruits which I have tasted in any part of the world, nothing has seemed to me preferable to the East Indian Mango. It is about the length of a full grown cucumber, as large as the largest specimens of that vegetable, smaller at one end that at the other. It has a flat stone extending from end to end. The skin is about the thickness of that of the banana. You stand the mango on one end in your plate and slice it on either side of the stone. Two slices then lay before you. With a dessert spoon youtake out piece after piece of the tender fruit, and when you have eaten both halves to the skin, there yet remains the stone, which has a great deal on it. You take it up in both hands and pass your mouth around it. By this time your hands and face are a spectacle which you can judge of by the predicament which you see your neighbor to be in. You are ready to agree with the East Indian maxim that a mango never should be eaten except in a tub of water. You cannot help beginning with another; but let it be small, or you will be likely to inquire if you may not divide your second with a friend. The fruit is of about the same color inside as the muskmelon, but it is harder, though not tough, not disagreeably sweet; juicy, nutritious. We began to receive them at Hong Kong in May, from Manila, where they are in perfection. We were surprised on seeing them upon the table at Christmas in Manila,a forcing process being used there to bring them forward.

Another valuable fruit in the East Indies is the Mangastene. It is of the size of the tomato and looks like it in shape; it is of the deep purple color of the purple grape. The outside shell, which is easily broken by the hand, being removed, a snow white fruit appears, divided like the tomato into as many sections. Its juice is slightly acid,—more correctly, acidulated,—a pleasant sour. There being little or nothing solid in it, the saying is that one may eat of the fruit indefinitely. There are few fruits better adapted to a warm climate.

At Shanghai the Watermelon attains a degree of perfection which I have never known exceeded.

The Pumelo, though a coarse fruit, is valuable. It resembles the West India shadduck; it is a large, fleshy orange, not so juicy as that fruit.

To those who are fond of the banana it must be a delight to spend time where they can fully gratify their taste for it. The Sandwich Islands gave us the best specimens.—I cannot say it would be easy for me to enlarge this description of foreign fruits; indeed it would be painful, for the mention of these fruits is a vivid reminder of lost joys, joys pure, innocent, health-giving, a source of gratitude to the Giver of all good, stimulating the anticipation of future pleasure, which divine revelation does not consider it beneath itself to specify among the promised pleasures of heaven. It used to be a pleasant theme of meditation in those East India regions, that in the fields of the blest there is a species of tree (not, of course, one solitary tree) which bears twelve manner of fruits, and yields fruit every month. It was a harmless fancy of an invalid which twelve of all the fruits known to him he wouldselect for that species of tree to bear. His taste would make grave mistakes in putting the watermelon, for example, on the same tree with the plum; which led him to question whether the structural nature of the tree might not be supposed to be as far beyond his present botanical knowledge as the yield of the tree would surpass his present experience. His acquaintance with the almost perpetual banana gave him some idea of the practicability of vegetation reaching to the extent, even, of yielding fruit every month; so that without consulting with the botanical critic he would load his tree with the East Indian mango, mangastenes, apricots, muskmelons, peaches, pears, grapes, apples, quinces, watermelons, banana, figs; and then he would consider how inadequate was a pomological catalogue to express the known objects which stood ready to tempt his appetite. The queen of Sheba, herself from theEast, perhaps admonished him by seeming to say that a greater than Solomon would hereafter ‘feed him and lead him to living fountains of waters.’

At Manila one object after another would be continually presenting itself to our notice, leading the thoughts into the still remote parts of the eastern world. In the yard of a gentleman stood this singular creature, which you felt obliged to call a bird yet you would prefer that it should be classed as an animal, for it seemed to belong among animals, though it is a biped. Its enormous legs, eighteen inches long, its fleshy protuberance on its head, coarsely imitating the tuft on the head of the peacock, left you in doubt how to assign it a place among the tribes of the animal kingdom, reminding you of the exploit in rhyming which a wit perpetratedwith its name and its place of nativity, making Cassowary to rhyme with ‘missionary,’ and Timbuctoo with ‘hymn-book too.’

We left Manila Jan. 20th, with great regret. We were taking leave of valued friends, besides bidding adieu to scenes of interest which had not been surpassed in our experience. We had reached the eastern limit of our long voyage; we were to turn and find our way to the western continent. Objects of thrilling interest were yet to be passed. But how could we help feeling the need of special assistance in the great undertaking of going round the other half of the globe? These words came to me, and some lines were suggested by them:

“When the even was come he saith unto them, Let us pass over unto the other side.” Mark iv. 25.

They went, and as they sailedA storm came down upon the lake;It made the boldest spirits quake;Their faith forsook them, so their courage failed.He on a pillow slept;The stormy waters waked not Him.But prayer had power to break the dreamWhich through the tempest Him asleep had kept.There on Gadara’s shoreHell’s sullen legion knew his form;He and the twelve, escaped the storm,Enrage their spiteful enemies the more.He speaks, the gale goes down;The legion at his bidding flee;The maniac finds recoveryAnd spreads abroad the Nazarene’s renown.We leave what may betide,Saviour! to thy Almighty power.So, trusting in thy love each hour,We will pass over to the other side.

They went, and as they sailedA storm came down upon the lake;It made the boldest spirits quake;Their faith forsook them, so their courage failed.

They went, and as they sailed

A storm came down upon the lake;

It made the boldest spirits quake;

Their faith forsook them, so their courage failed.

He on a pillow slept;The stormy waters waked not Him.But prayer had power to break the dreamWhich through the tempest Him asleep had kept.

He on a pillow slept;

The stormy waters waked not Him.

But prayer had power to break the dream

Which through the tempest Him asleep had kept.

There on Gadara’s shoreHell’s sullen legion knew his form;He and the twelve, escaped the storm,Enrage their spiteful enemies the more.

There on Gadara’s shore

Hell’s sullen legion knew his form;

He and the twelve, escaped the storm,

Enrage their spiteful enemies the more.

He speaks, the gale goes down;The legion at his bidding flee;The maniac finds recoveryAnd spreads abroad the Nazarene’s renown.

He speaks, the gale goes down;

The legion at his bidding flee;

The maniac finds recovery

And spreads abroad the Nazarene’s renown.

We leave what may betide,Saviour! to thy Almighty power.So, trusting in thy love each hour,We will pass over to the other side.

We leave what may betide,

Saviour! to thy Almighty power.

So, trusting in thy love each hour,

We will pass over to the other side.

We began our homeward voyage from Manila Jan. 20, and reached Anjer, Feb. 1.Anjer is the western point of Java; vessels pass it to and from the China seas. “Passed Anjer,” in the marine reports, signifies that a vessel has left the China seas on her homeward way, or has just entered them on her outward voyage. Anjer supplies vessels with poultry, vegetables, fruits and water. On enquiring for bananas, we were told by a man who came on board that he would get us “a fathom of them for a dollar.” It was a large Oriental statement, with a basis of truth; but six feet of bananas for a dollar seemed too good to be true.

Batavia is about seventy-five miles from Anjer; the road to it is characterized by Dutch solidity and thoroughness. Opposite the hotel at Anjer is a banian-tree, said to be the largest in diameter in that part of the world, composed of shoots which have descended from the top, taken root, and become principal parts of the tree. We saw fromshore our ship under sail, waiting for us, beating about against a head wind and current. The sight was animating. We rowed off to her four miles, glad to be on board the noble thing which had borne us more than half round the world, and was waiting to complete the great circuit. As often as we now see in the marine record, “Passed Anjer,” we recall the sensations with which we looked off from that lighthouse, which is the first or last object of interest to all who navigate those East-Indian seas.

It was extremely interesting to be approaching this famous point. That great maritime revelation, the opening of a new route to India in 1487, the story of Bartholomew Diaz and Vasco da Gama, and of the first navigators around that point, who used to bury their journals and set up a stonepointing to them, that the homeward-bound vessels might, by this primitive mail arrangement, get the latest news of them, made it an object of deep interest. Here the astronomers come from different countries, to observe the signs of the heavens; and certainly no place can be conceived of more favorable for such purposes. The clear atmosphere and the perfect horizon make it a place well fitted for telescopes to try their power. The Indian Ocean opening here, spreads before the observer the scene of some of the most interesting events of history. Being about four thousand miles from north to south, and of equal breadth, and receiving the Red Sea, holding the Persian Gulf and the Bay of Bengal, distinguished by such islands as Madagascar, Mauritius, Ceylon, and by such rivers as the Tigris, Euphrates, Indus, Ganges, and by the great equatorial current which, after it leaves the wide coast of China, crossesthis ocean to the Mozambique Channel, seeking the east coast of Africa, and making its way by the Cape of Good Hope,—this Indian Ocean does not yield in historic or natural interest to the two greater oceans. Its northern part, divided from the southern by the Tropic of Capricorn, floats the commerce of Europe and this country with China, India, and the Malay Islands. Arabia and Persia, and the opposite India have used its waters for centuries in their local commerce. Points of interest along its seacoast, gulfs, and rivers are, Aden and Mocha in Arabia, Bassorah in Turkey, Bombay, Madras, Calcutta in Hindostan, and Point de Galle in Ceylon. It seemed more like the centre of the world on this ocean than elsewhere. Its astronomical attractions and its sunsets give it a peculiar charm, though after all that has been said of Indian Ocean sunsets, I am constrained to say that in Princeton,Massachusetts, I have seen more wonderful sunsets than I saw in the Indian Ocean.

Table Mountain, which makes the most prominent object at the Cape of Good Hope, though not the southernmost point, is 3,816 feet high. It has a flat summit of great extent, and from that peculiarity in its formation it has its name. It is seen in clear weather fifty or sixty miles distant. You would think it a burial-place of kings, having something stately in appearance, as though it were a mausoleum erected by human art, like the pyramids built by successive generations. We sailed away from it in the latter part of an afternoon, reflecting that we had looked upon the last object connected with the continents of the other hemisphere.

TABLE MOUNTAIN.Page 284.

We came very near this deeply interesting spot which for several years held the attention of the world. We could appreciate the saying of the notable prisoner there, who spoke of himself as “chained to this rock;” for the island impresses you as a huge rock. Very few isolated places seem to have more connection with the world; for twenty-five vessels on an average each day pass by it, showing their signals, to be reported. To begin and speak of the place, and the thoughts and feelings which it suggested, would not be expected. We could not go ashore without first entering the ship and paying port duties; but we had a full view of “Longwood,” where Napoleon lived, and where he met death.

We resolved to go on board a British man-of-war which we should pass not far off. On lowering the largest boat into the water, theseams proved to have opened, and she soon filled. The gig which we used all summer in going ashore at Hong Kong was more seaworthy; so we set off in her for the man-of-war. We took four men to row and one to bail, which he had to do nimbly, the water gaining on him, obliging the stroke-oar to lend him a hand. By keeping our feet on a level with the rail, we managed to reach the “Rattlesnake” without being wet, though we discussed the question whether a handkerchief at half mast on an oar would be likely to be seen, if we were swamped. We went and returned safely, having received from the ship the news of the French and Prussian war, three months old, and having also received of a New Bedford whaler some vegetables, which we tried in vain to pay for. The midshipmen of the “Rattlesnake” said that they were attracted by a noble American vessel which entered the harbor thatmorning, and they asked if we could tell them her name. After listening to their description, we, with becoming diffidence, informed them that it was the Golden Fleece.

The last point on which our eyes rested was the Island of Ascension, always interesting to every one at school as the most solitary-looking spot in the dreary South Atlantic. A whaler tacked and came near us; two of the men stood aloft watching for whales. Feeling that they were the last of our race whom we should behold for some time, and with sincere respect for the hardy men on their ocean hunting-ground, I waved my hat to them, and the two caps aloft made hearty response.

We soon found by the signs above us that we were entering the northern hemisphere.One evening we saw, just above the horizon, two stars of “The Dipper.” It was several nights before the North Star came up the watery hill. The poet Spenser probably had never sailed in these latitudes when he wrote of the North Star as never being below thehorizon:—

“By this, the Northern wagoner had setHis sevenfold teme behind the stedfast starreThat was in ocean waves yet never wet,But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farreTo all that on the wide deepe wandering arre.”61

“By this, the Northern wagoner had set

His sevenfold teme behind the stedfast starre

That was in ocean waves yet never wet,

But firme is fixt, and sendeth light from farre

To all that on the wide deepe wandering arre.”61

But at last it came up, dripping wet, and inspired in us the hope of soon watching it from our windows at home.

While it is true that as much was combined as could be wished for to render this voyage agreeable, those who have been at sea will not believe that we were free fromthe ordinary discomforts or annoyances of sea-life. For the satisfaction of those who have suffered in sailing vessels it will be well for me to show our dark side of sea-life in some of its principal annoyances; doing this, however, for the sake of the truth, that the voyage may not appear to have been out of the ordinary experience of those who go down to the sea.

One of the first things which we all suffer at sea is revealed in the inspired account of sea-faring experience, which we are presented with in the contrasted experience of being on shore: “Then are they glad because they be quiet.” There are times at sea when stability seems to be the most enviable state. In weariness the invalid passenger, tossed and not comforted, feels constrained to quote one of the earliest verses of inspiration: “Let the dry land appear.” Yet there is so much that provokes mirth in the midst ofdiscomfort that it is not easy to say on which side the balance lies, whether of discomfort or amusement. Behold three men, two of them at least used to the sea, setting out from different parts of the main cabin to make their way to the table in the forward cabin. The ship rolls over on her port side, and the cabin-floor is at once an inclined plane at a grade very much removed from horizontal. They have a steep hill to ascend; and a seven-pound weight on either foot, ashore, would not be more cumbrous than that which seems now to be holding them to the floor. The sensation in trying to move cannot be unlike that which would be felt in an exhausted receiver. If the weight of the atmosphere on the human body, fifteen pounds to the square inch, instead of being equally diffused could be concentrated on the feet, the sensation probably would not be unlike that which one feels in tryingto get across a ship’s deck when she is thrown over to the side opposite to that whither you are going. So these three gentlemen stand immovably fixed in the middle of the floor, their feet discreetly wide apart to preserve the upright position of the body. Then the ship rolls over on the other side, and the three travellers to the dinner table go involuntarily fast to the side of the cabin and hold on by a door, while the ship rolls once more, and comes back, it may be, with mitigated severity. At last a favorable opportunity is seized and the three slide into their seats in postures more necessary than graceful. Then begins a series of mishaps at table. No careful adjustment of the dishes, nor even the security provided for them by the racks can guard against the accidents which befall cups and saucers indiscreetly filled, or plates of soup not well provided with suitable dunnage of slices of bread underneaththe lee side. A barrel of apples falls against the door of a locker and empties itself over the floor; and a canister of lamp-oil, whose cork had not been made tight, follows after the apples, and they are no longer eatable. Oh to be quiet! What seems more desirable than a good foundation?

One day when the ship was rolling heavily it was difficult to keep your seat on the settee, and impossible to lie reclined. Every thing which was not lashed to some fixture about the room, or to staples driven into the floor, was sure to adopt a nomadic state and go from side to side. Among other things a “Pilgrim’s Progress,” which had been left on a table, fell from it and went sliding to and fro, exciting lively sensations in me at the thought that Mr. Ready-to-Halt and his friend, Mr. Despondency, were moving at a pace ill suited to the crutches of the old gentleman;for the book went like a shuttle back and forth on the floor.

The little stove in the cabin felt the changeable wind, and did not draw well. This required the frequent attention of the steward. He was a Portuguese man, with a dark skin. He sat on the canvas carpet whittling, to make lightwood, to start the fire. The ship went down on one side, and the steward with it, whittling all the while, then sliding back in his upright position, maintained with becoming gravity, till the passengers, no longer able to contain themselves, were made merry at the sight. This made him show his white teeth, silently, without anything so undignified as a laugh; at which the passengers were increasingly merry.

What shall I say of the cockroaches, red ants, tarantulas, and mice? One thing can be said in favor of all of them,—they werenot musquitoes. This was a nightly consolation; but it was the only good thing which could be said of them all. The ants would cover every vessel in which they could find any thing to drink; fresh water seemed to be their chief delight; if a wet sponge were hung up to dry, on taking it down the little creatures would be there in legions. The white ant is the bane of the Indian climate; their depredations, however, are chiefly on shore. I was going up the front stairs of a gentleman’s dwelling in China, when his foot went through a stair. “Ah,” said he, “the ants have been at work here!” But at sea we found the cockroaches most destructive. It is not pleasant to find several of them on your pillow when you go into your stateroom at night. They are harmless to the person, but the covers of books, and everything which has been pasted or glued, all lacker work, and paper generally, suffer fromthem. Yet there are housekeepers on shore who can inveigh against vermin, as well as people at sea.

There are some people who cannot bear any noise overhead at night. If the gale does not wake them and keep them awake, twenty or thirty sailors hoisting or lowering the spanker, their boots making a noise not so gentle as that of prunello dancing-pumps will do it. If the stillness of the night and the passenger’s sleep are broken by the mate pacing the deck to keep himself awake, the heels of his boots will be chiefly answerable; for these make the principal disturbance; he cannot always comfortably wear India rubbers during his watch; he is to be pitied if he has a nervous passenger, and thanked if he is able to forego his walks on the house for the invalid’s sake.

It would seem as though there should be a special punishment for those who practisefraud in ships’ stores. Your appetite is delicate; you have no source of supply but your locker; that is furnished with bottles and jars which profess to hold, for instance, jellies, made and provided expressly for sea-faring appetites. Your hopes of a comfortable supper are vested in a jar of jelly which the steward has placed on table, hoping to provoke an appetite. On opening it, instead of the fruit jelly which the label assures you is within, you find only gelatine, flavored with an extract resembling the fruit. There is nothing on the table for which you feel any desire but the promised jelly; you find yourself secretly invoking a sea-faring experience like this upon the man who has so deceived you, till at last your suffering is so great under your disappointment, which grows intense as the tasteless supper proceeds, that in stern disapprobation of this annoying ship-chandler trick, you feel resolved to makeit known, promising him that if you ever go to sea again you will pay special attention and see if his name is on the labels of the jellies. He who writes this and they who read it will not fail to remember that invalids are apt to be unreasonable. So small a matter as a jar of preserves disappointing the expectation of a nervous patient, especially at sea, where there are no means of alleviation, may be more than a match for the philosophy and the resolution of the best of men and women.

When I have said these things, very few discomforts or annoyances remain which are not incident to almost any situation on shore. Many things there we are freed from at sea; the noise of cats at night, the barking of dogs, the scream of locomotives, the painfully regular puffing of stationary engines, the roar of wheels, the annoyances of mischievous boys, these you escape at sea; all ofthem in sailing-vessels, for in steamers you have some of them. If one should fairly add up the comparative discomforts of ship and shore, would life at sea prove to have the most of them? I came to the conclusion that a good sailing-ship, with agreeable company, is as near a perfect state of rest and peace as ever falls to our lot.

“Tarring down,” already mentioned, and now repeated because the operation is renewed as the vessel is coming near to port, is to a landsman an animating sight. Every rope in the standing rigging, beginning aloft, feels the smearing process, which is carried on without gloves. The stays, which run between the masts at an angle of forty-five degrees, are reached at every point by the boys, each in what is called a boatswain’s chair, not unlike the seat of a swing; inwhich he is lowered at his call by a boy or the mate on deck, who belays him at each descent a few feet at a time. Often have I watched these boys suspended sixty feet above the deck, wiping the rope with the sopping rags which they dip in the tar-bucket till they reach the deck; and I have thought what a sight one of these boys would be to his mother,—her pet besmeared with tar from head to foot, one suit of his clothes, kept for the occasion, doomed to go overboard after the tarring down near port, the boy feeling an honest pride as he illustrates in his work the dignity of labor. But perhaps the mother’s heart would yearn towards her child more than when she should see him in “the boatswain’s chair,” on seeing him at his meals. I repeat it, he has no table. He goes to the galley with his tin pot; the cook gives him his portion of tea or coffee, sweetened with molasses; the boy cuts a pieceof beef from out the mess-kid, gets a piece of “hard-tack” from the “bread barge,” sits down on deck, or on a spare spar, lays his tin pan beside him, and with his sheath-knife and fingers despatches his “grub.” Many at their rich mahogany tables loaded with China-ware and silver would give it all for the boy’s appetite and power of digestion.

Our three crews, were, one from New York to San Francisco, the second, from San Francisco to the Sandwich Islands and Hong Kong, the third, from Hong Kong to Manila and thence to New York.

It would be more than could be expected of human nature subjected to the trials of nautical life, to behave with perfect propriety under all the various conditions to which men must be subjected in a long voyage. From New York to San Francisco we werefavored with a set of men who could not be excelled in their dispositions and behavior. I have already quoted the complimentary remarks of the captain in his last address to them. In San Francisco, although there is not the opportunity to make a good selection which there is in the port of New York, we were also highly favored in our men.

We had three libraries sent on board before we left New York, which did excellent service. It was interesting to see the men after religious services on the Sabbath morning, finding shady places about the ship with their books and tracts from these libraries. This is in contrast to the old system of things among sailors. A familiar picture of a sailor used to be a man with a monkey led by a string in one hand, a parrot cage in the other, a tarpaulin with a quarter of a yardof black ribbon flying, no suspenders, his trowsers revealing a zone of blue shirt above his waistbands. The appearance of our crew from New York was far in advance of such a portraiture. It is still seen, though the contrast is very frequent.

On our way from Manila the Captain invited me to go down with him to the knight head, at the foot of the bowsprit, where you may extemporize a good seat protected with ropes. There you have a good view of the ship, and, taking the foremast for a guide, can learn the names of the different sails, see the arrangement of the jibs, and, leaning over, watch the cutwater dividing the billows, throwing up sheets of foam, the spray saluting you as often as the ship buries herself in a huge wave. We indulged ourselves in some mathematical calculations as to the bulk of water displaced by the ship as shefloated, with several problems adjacent. This ship is two hundred and ten feet long. Malone Block, in Boston, where we formerly lived, has six dwellings, each twenty-three feet long, making the block a hundred and thirty-eight feet, so that the ship is once and a half the length of that block! We did much ciphering on the wood work, which may not have escaped the paint brush, or the constant wear from the weather. If it survives, a reader may find there some curious calculations in the mensuration of solids.

The crew which we shipped in Hong Kong were several of them, as it proved, released from jail to ship; they were, in part, the off-couring of English vessels. They were disposed to take advantage of the officers when possible, doing as little work as would serve to make them appear busy. One of them was sent aloft to slush down the mast, and thesecond mate observed that he was loitering about in the rigging, to kill time. At eight bells he came down on deck, intending to go to breakfast with his watch and let somebody else finish his work; but the mate ordered him aloft to complete his job. This he refused to do, saying he would not work when it was his watch below. The captain heard the dispute and told the man that if he did not obey the orders he would put him in irons. He continuing obstinate, they put irons on his hands and placed him in the poop deck hatch, and gave him hard bread and water for food. He held out forty-eight hours in spite of the captain’s continual conversation with him; when leg irons were brought and were going on; then he humbly consented to obey the order and to behave well. The captain has since told me it was the only time that he ever confined a sailor, and he was inclined afterward to wish thathe had been still more patient, trying to conquer the man by his usual method of moral suasion. “But,” said he, “it was the only direct refusal of duty which I ever had, and with such a dangerous crew I felt the necessity of showing decision.” I record it with my grateful acknowledgment that though this man was kept manacled in the lazareet, under my stateroom, I did not know when he was put there, nor was I aware of his crime and his punishment till several months after our arrival.—One other incident will complete the criminal record of the ship.

On the voyage from Manila to New York we had the only interruption to our peace. One day we were informed by the steward that some of the men had thrown their beef overboard; that they were excited; and he feared trouble. The captain made inquiryinto the cause of disaffection, the ringleaders in it, the nature of their threats.

He called them together on the main deck in the afternoon. All were there except the man at the wheel. They were dressed in their Sunday clothes; they stood round as men do when there is a strike. The passengers kept out of sight, but were within hearing. We had heard of mutinies; perhaps we were now to have some practical experience of them.

The captain told them that the steward had informed him that they found fault with their beef. He believed that there may have been some reason for complaint; that a new barrel had been opened that morning; he believed that the first pieces had been exposed to the air, the brine having been absorbed since leaving New York; that the steward happened to give these pieces to them rather than to the cabin table, but there was nodesign in doing so; that had we had one of the pieces for dinner that day, we should no doubt have complained that it was not as fresh after coming round Cape Horn as it was on leaving Fulton Market; but we would not for this have abused the steward. Now as we were getting to the last tier of the beef barrels he should have to shorten their allowance a little, especially if they preferred to throw their beef overboard, which they might do if they pleased, but they would gain nothing by it; we were all in the same boat sharing alike. He had heard of some expressions being used which were not right; he hoped he was misinformed; they would find that so long as they showed themselves to be reasonable men they would have no just ground of complaint. They also knew what the consequences would be to any one who should make trouble.

The men separated peacefully, making no more complaint; for we soon drew from deeper brine and the beef proved to be all right.

Perhaps it was accidental, but the captain said that complaints against the grub had been most frequently made by some Irishmen in his different crews. Whether these offenders had been accustomed to the best of fare on shore, and so were less able to bear discomforts in sea life, or whether they were of a more jealous disposition than others from some natural cause in their temperament, he would not say, but he had found it more difficult to suit a man of this class in the matter of grub than others; the shillaleh was too ready to appear at a fancied attempt to get an advantage over him in his food. For quick witted, daring, nimble, nautical feats, none have surpassed Irish sailors. As quick as any one of his watch, you are sureto find an Irishman lying out on the yard arm as far as to the weather earring, in a gale.

It is not right to lay hold of a few cases and impute certain classes of faults to men of one nation, as though these men were all of them specially addicted to that kind of transgression. There is no assignable reason, for example, why an Irishman, rather than a Swede, should be quick to find fault with his grub; if it has so happened that, as a captain told us, he never in a long course of years, had a disturbance in his crew about the grub but an Irishman was sure to be at the bottom of it; that even when in all other respects the Irishman was exemplary in his disposition, grub was sure to be a weak point with him; still we would prefer to hear the experience of others before we drew a conclusion unfavorable to a whole class of men in that particular.

There is a singular superstition among some seamen that where there is a Fin in the crew, you may be sure of bad luck. Had we been superstitious, we might have augured ill for ourselves, because the first entry on our shipping list was of John Reholm, Finland. Now John Reholm was, as to behavior, blameless. He was short and stout, about forty-five years old, always ready to go aloft, good at mending old sails, quiet, always at Sabbath service, often betraying emotion, which was noticeable in his moistened eye, his quivering lip. I do not remember to have heard him speak a word, so that I doubt if he could speak English, except a few indispensable sentences, though he understood the spoken tongue. Yet when all hands were on deck in some exigency, you would be attracted by his readiness to lead off in that part of the work which called for astrong arm; he knew where to look for the corner of the sail which the wind had torn then twisted. On receiving at the wheel your salutation as you passed him, though his hands might both be needed to keep the wheel straight he would be sure to lift a hand to his cap, and acknowledge your attention. There was no bad luck about him. He went the round voyage with us. Would that I could hear of his welfare. If any one says a disparaging word about a Fin, the image of a saint among sailors rises to my thoughts in the person of John Reholm.

Now that I am out of all danger of incurring the disapprobation of the mates, I am free to speak thus about a sailor, and I would be glad to say more. One Sabbath I spoke to the crew in terms of commendation. We were lying at anchor in Hong Kong harbor.In the night there were signs of a gale. One anchor only was down; the ship drifted, and we were afoul of an English bark. As the wind was still rising and we had lately had a typhoon, we were apprehensive of another. All hands in each vessel were at work, some aloft, clearing the rigging and fending off, and those below anxiously watching the growing snarl, contending with unequal strength against the chafing, and now and then the grinding action, of the vessel. From my window I could see and hear all that was going on, as we lay close to. The crews being strangers one to the other, many of them of different nationality, there was due deference paid to each other, courteous, kind expressions, regrets on the one side at running upon a neighbor, on the other the deprecation or the ready acceptance of apologies, the ‘don’t mention it,’ or, ‘we should have been foul of you, if the wind had beenthe other way.’ After working hard from two o’clock till four, in the dark, we were clear of each other, and the spare anchor went down to hold us fast. No words of impatience met my ear during the whole work of disentangling the snarl. It came in my way to speak of this the next Sabbath. A few days after we were discussing the sailors, when one of the mates said to me, “I was afraid last Sabbath that you were going too far in praising them.” “Yes,” said the other, “I was on tenter hooks, till you got through.” I am ready to defer to the practical judgment of the mates, yet we may be too sparing of kind words, courteous tones, and praise, in our treatment of those whom we would impress with the feeling that they are under authority. It will not hurt any of us to have in mind the injunction of an old poet:

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