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    We h ^ d pudding , too , with huge gro $ s plums in it and large lumps , of transpicuous suet . OUr coffee was no better than bui ^ it crust and hot water would have been ; the biscuits very sandy and as hard as flints . It was literally Macadamizing the stomach io eat a couple of them . But wine and rum we had in

    abundance . I dined frequently in the gun-room , however , and w ^ s content to wait for a vacancy . To counterbalance these disagreeables there was certainly a vast deal of fun going on in the steerage and Mids' berth . The chief annoyance , and that a very great one , was the impossibility of getting any rest night or day ; at least , not until one got used

    to sleeping amidst singing , capering , drinking , smoking , storytelling , flute-blowing , and sundry practical jokes ; all of which require long habit , or great exhaustion , before you can set them at nought and " compose yourself . " And the game was carried on by these means . We seldom felt inclined to sleep till eleven or twelve , consequently the noise we made prevented those who bad the next watch , and were not " used " to the disturbance , from

    getting- a wink : at twelve the mid-watch was " turned out , " and those m the first night-watch then coming down , were prepared to take their grog and make merry in tlie berth ; this they frequently kept up till three or four , at which hour the morning-watch commences , so that be in which watch you might there was little sleep all night for those who required peace and quietness for the

    occasion . The noise , indeed , from four in the morning to eight , though of a different character , was worse to my thinking than the other . A little before five deck-washing began , and the banging of the iron punpps at work , while the wooden buckets were pitched down upon their hollow bottoms on the deck as they passed them from one to another ; all which thunder being directly

    overhead , and scarce ten inches from the noses of those who were lying in their hammocks ( having little more than the deck between their heads and the actual blow ) rendered sleeping a very difficult effort of the will . Besides , the Ambassador ' s livestock just about this time began to clamour for their morning meal , and the oaths of the sailors above were therefore nearly drowned

    by the crowing of cocks 9 the baaing of sheep , grunting of pigs , crying of young goats , cackling of ducks and geese , &c . It was as l > aa as sleeping in the spare den of a menagerie . I pass over the " larks ' that were frequently carried on at n ^ gfyt in the steerage upon those who wanted rest ; merely observing that to find your bed filled with shoes and saucepans , or a quart of split peas and a tar-brush , is extremely disagreeable at the beat of ^ tiipes ; and that to have your hammock suddenly

    cut down by the head or feet , at the meTcy of the larkist , wherpby you are instantly shot out headforemost or otherwise / upon the hard deck below , is an unhandsome joke that might break

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    No . T . —The Voyage . 611

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Oct. 2, 1836, page 611, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse-os.kdl.kcl.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2662/page/23/