employed by the commissariat, to convey stores and provisions to the garrison. She was named Voltigeur, and if the term was meant to imply a rolling and tumbling vessel, in opposition to every thing of speed or expedition, it surely could not have been more correctly applied, for never did an unweildy cask move more heavily on the water.

Quite unexpectedly I met with five other passengers on board, to all of whom I was an entire stranger. I thought myself fortunate in having procured three small chickens, and a salted pig's face, with some fruit and vegetables, as my share of stock for the voyage; and which, I was told by my friends on shore, who had often made the passage, was an ample supply, it being probable that I should not have to remain more than a single day on board. The other gentlemen, having more confidence than myself in the wind, the sea, and the Voltigeur, had embarked without provisions or stores of any kind.

The anchor was weighing when I arrived on board, I, therefore, had scarcely any opportunity of seeing my fellow passengers before we were under sail; nor had I time to become at all acquainted with them ere I was compelled to retreat, and to hide myself from their society; for, as usual, my head became sensible of the sea-motion before we had well escaped from the river, and my stomach sympathizing, violent sickness seized me, and I was compelled to hurry to bed.

'Till now I had taken no thought regarding either cabin or couch, the shortness of the voyage, and the warm and steady temperature of the climate had superseded all concern respecting a birth for the night-every accommodation being assured to me by sitting upon deck, or lying down in the open air. The ills of noon, and the unaccommodating nature of the Voltigeur had no share in my calculations. But I now discovered that no relief to the present sufferings could be had upon deck. To sit up was impossible, the violence of the reaching being altogether insupportable, and, as the vessel offered no protecting shade, to lie down upon the deck, exposed to the full power of a burning sun, was to invite almost certain dis

ease; and, further, as there were no quarter-boards, nor any other defence at the sides of the sloop, I must have been every moment in danger of being rolled overboard into the sea.

Under these circumstances I was driven to seek shelter in the cabin, such as it might chance to be; and, to this end, I was conducted to a kind of trap-door in the quarter-deck, called a hatch-way; and, the hatch being lifted off, a dark hole below was pointed out to me as the cabin, and the only place where I could recline my aching head, or hope relief for my sickened stomach. Subdued by the depressing langour of nausea, I was too ill to hesitate;-to lie down was my only care. A death-like sickness impelled me on; and, unassisted by stairs or ladder, I dropped myself, by means of my trembling arms, down the opening into this murky cell. My feet were quickly arrested by the old chests, and other lumber scattered about this filthy place, which was not of sufficient depth to admit of my standing upright, without being half out at the hatch-way; neither was there room to sit down, nor a chair, nor stool to rest upon---hence it only remained to me to crawl upon my hands and knees over the loose chests and barrels to the farthest extent of the cabin, and there throw myself into a wooden birth fixed at the side; which I found too short to admit of the full extension of my person, and too near the planks of the deck above, to allow of my remaining in any but an extended posture.

'Still the annihilating nausea I suffered rendering me insensible to all other ills, I folded myself up, as well as the shortness and narrowness of my contracted birth would allow, and assuming, as nearly as I could, the horizontal position, sought only to escape from the distressing sickness that overpowered me: nor was it until this had somewhat abated that I discovered the horrors of the contracted dungeon into which I had crawled. Darkness and nausea had concealed from me, not only the limited extent, but the many other ills of this wretched hole. At a moment when the all-concealing sickness had a little subsided, a sailor, with a light in his hand, dropped through the opening by which I had descended. It were impossible to describe the sensations I experienced upon discoVOL. II.--(22)

D

vering the scene which now opened to me. The execrable nest in which I was lying was not simply crowded and confined, beyond all that the annoyances I had felt had led me to suspect, but it was a tout ensemble of nastiness, that defies all description. Words can only convey to you, a faint idea of the dirty and abominable place, in which, for four long days, sick and without food, I had to live.

6

This horrid cell, called a cabin, was only six feet long, seven wide, and four in depth; and was further contracted to less than half its dimension, by the loose old chests, and wormeaten coffers standing on the deck below; the thick sheets of cobwebs suspended from the deck above; and the crowd of filthy ornaments hanging on all sides. To sit or to stand appeared impossible; scarcely, indeed, was there room to lie down, or to breathe. Not only was I shocked to see the noxious den I was in, but was puzzled to conjecture how I could have steered my passage to the birth where I was lying. Both the entrance to the cabin, and the path I had travelled to my couch were such as I could only have passed during the insensibility of a severe fit of nausea. Descending from the hatchway above, I must have alighted upon a heap of unfixed trunks and coffers, at the risk of my legs being jammed between them; then I had to crawl, upon my hands and knees, over the old unsteady lumber, breaking my way through filththickened cobwebs, at the hazard of being entangled in the strong net-work of gigantic spiders, whose labours had known no interruption since the building of the ship; and who, by constant toil, had manufactured sheets and cordage of almost sufficient strength to work it. But when compared to the many other offensive things which filled the place, these arachnoide hangings might be regarded as the rich tapestry of the apartment.

I was really seized with terror on beholding the actual state of this noisome prison-hole, for, considering its confined limits, and the multiplicity of foul and offensive things that were crammed into it, it appeared quite miraculous that I should have escaped the fate of our countrymen who were consigned to the celebrated hole of Calcutta.

At each side of this dark abode was a fixed sleeping birth which * narrow, short, and dirty. The centre was filled with barre, tubs, old sea chests, greasy coffers, and other lumber. At one end stood a tub of stinking salt meat; at the other, one with rotten potatoes, and pots of rancid butter. The cabin was the general receptacle-the store-house, cellar, pantry, and larder of the ship. Under the births, saluting the noses of those lying in them, were filthy worm-eaten chests, filled with dirty long-worn apparel, and other high-essenced contents. One was set apart for unwashed knives and forks, dirty plates, basons, and dishes; another for the odorous remains of yesterday's dinner. In one corner stood a bag of , musty biscuit—in another hung an old grease-thickened lantern. Hand-spikes, marline spikes, dirty swabs, a broken mouldy case with a compass----an old worm-eaten ditto with a quadrant, two or three broken fishing lines, a battered old speaking trumpet, and a variety of other implements, hung, or strewed about, added to the furniture of the apartment.

But worst of all were the poisonous old blankets of the sleeping births; and the myriads of insects and vermin-crawling about, and making a public high-way of my body. Rats and mice, cockroachers, musquitoes, fleas, and ants, formed only a part of the catalogue.

You will believe that on discovering how I was placed, I lost no time in attempting my escape from this wretched nest. But, on rising, a violent and enfeebling sickness again seized me, and from the causes I have mentioned, it was impossible to remain upon deck; I therefore made the experiment of standing in the hatch-way, with my head through the opening, so as to catch the passing breeze; but the intense heat from the perpendicular rays of the sun, and the death-like nausea and incessant reaching produced by the erect position, soon chased me from this wholesome station, and left me only a choice of evils--either to extend myself upon deck exposed to burning heat, at the risk of being rolled overboard into the sea; or again to throw myself into the deadly hole I had left. The former of these measures almost insured disease--the latter

threatened a poisonous suffocation, and the danger of being devoured by vermin.

In this dilemma-unable to decide which might prove the lesser evil, and almost sinking from the langour produced by nausea and vomiting, I, at length, resolved to return to the manifold ills of the cabin; but continued at the hatch-way, supporting a degree of reaching, which almost inverted my stomach, while one of the sailors removed the blankets and other offensive things that were in the birth, and swept and scrubbed it out, in order to give me the bare boards as a rest. ing place.

I now drew on a pair of thick fustain pantaloons that reached down to my feet; buckled them fast in my shoes; put on a pair of strong gloves; covered my head and great part of my face with my night-cap; and changing my coat for a loose morning gown, rolled myself up so as to leave scarcely more than my nose accessible; and, thus protected, tumbled again into the birth I had quitted, bidding defiance to the insects, vermin, and every annoyance around me. Fortunately my senses were not at this moment very acute, for I laboured under a severe catarrh which deprived me of the faculties of smelling and tasting, and almost robbed me of sight. By sickness and want of rest, my sense of feeling was also become torpid; so that the ear was the only organ which retained its full power of receiving offensive impressions. Situated as I was, all this might be considered as fortunate, for I was compelled to remain throughout the remainder of the day, either violently reaching, or sickly viewing the wretched and disgusting scene around me.

Before evening poor old Mr. Serjeant, one of my fellowpassengers, was likewise seized with sickness, and compelled to seek relief by reclining his head in the opposite birth of the cabin. I had now a companion in my affliction, but this brought no alleviation to my sufferings.I felt that this old gentleman, who possessed a large property and all the comforts of an opulent estate, might be less prepared than myself, to encounter the hardships and annoyances we were exposed to; and this