melancholy, as that in which I now found myself. I was on the point of leaving, as far as I knew, for ever, the land of my nativity; that land, with which all my hopes and feelings, my interests and affections, had been identified; and then, the horrible ennui of unsettled idleness-for I had not even my books to refer to―preyed heavily upon me I was, in short, a prey to despondency, almost intolerable, and looked with great eagerness and anxiety for the arrival of the good ship Tom Thumb, in the roadstead at Deal. 66 Two days after my arrival at that horrible town, (and the reader will readily surmise the torture I endured during the whole of that time,) the Tom Thumb was duly signalized at anchor, and I immediately prepared to go on board. I had not yet seen our very smart" captain, neither had I been introduced to any of my Compagnons du voyage," and I must confess, that my curiosity was a good deal excited on account of those with whom I was to associate during so long a passage. It was with feelings, therefore, of no ordinary interest, that I regarded the stately vessel, towards which two stout boatmen now swiftly impelled me; and as I ascended the ship's side, I felt that a new era was about to burst upon my existence, whether for good or evil I was yet to learn. I was received by the chief mate, who forthwith ushered me into the cuddy, where I found the captain and Mr. Twigg, with several of the passengers. Mr. Twigg introduced me to the skipper, who received me in a bluff, sailor-style, perfectly corroborative of good Mr. Twigg's assertion, that he was " none of your fine gentlemen captains; and, glancing cursorily at the inmates of the cuddy, I betook myself to my cabin, to reconnoitre and arrange my baggage. Till a vessel goes fairly out to sea, all, even in the best regulated and most punctilious, is hurry, bustle, and confusion. The seamen are full of vigilance and activity; the passengers grievously afflicted with sea-sickness; in addition to which, those desolate feelings of anxiety and apprehension, incident to an exile's departure from home," render them disconsolate and sad: and it was not till we were skirting the Bay of Biscay, that we met in any thing like a social manner at the cuddy table. I now found that our cabin party consisted of a motley, and somewhat numerous group. We mustered about twenty, and as I had nothing else to do, I turned my attention to an examination of my fellow-passengers. They promised to afford me abundant amusement during the voyage. With only two or three exceptions, they were all, male and female, brim-full of pretensions and boasting. Although it was perfectly evident that they were leaving England, to seek in a foreign, and far distant land, that subsistence, which they could not acquire at home; still, by their conversation and general demeanour, you would have imagined that they were going to spend a fortune, instead of to acquire one. And this curious delusion extended to the poor devils in the steerage, who, although cooped together like poultry, and rigidly allowanced to their salt junk and biscuit, and who, many of them at least, had "turned heaven and earth" to Scrape together the money for their passage; yet, they were as full of pomposity as their more fortunate companions in the cuddy. One person, in particular, afforded a striking instance of this egregious folly. He had ventured, as a steerage passenger, with his wife, four daughters, and two sons; and to have heard this man talk, you would have thought him, at least, a retired alderman. My attention had been directed towards him and his family by the surgeon, a raw lad, who was smitten with one of the daughters. The old man, (his name was Potts) had been unfortunate in business, chiefly through his own incorrigible indolence, and his wife was labouring under severe indisposition at the time of embarkation: his daughters (especially miss Jemima, my informant's flame) were described as particularly nice girls," and, I really felt for the poor creatures, notwithstanding the vulgar assurance, and wearisome bragging of their honoured papa. I told the surgeon, therefore, that any thing I had was at the service of the invalid, and begged, if it were necessary, that he would make no scruple of applying for it; a license he took advantage of with an alacrity that showed me, that however "experienced" our doctor was, his supply of “medical comforts" was not very abundant. 66 Amongst the cabin passengers, the only individuals, who were what the Scotch call" Kenspeckle," in other words, worthy of particular notice, were an elderly lady, by name Mrs. Timkins, and her daughter, Maria. The former was a very amusing, and most vulgar fidget, extremely terrified at what she called the "whast hocean," and perpetually tyranizing over her daughter, who was a clever, sensible, shrewd girl, and whose affection for her mother, was continually and sorely put to the test, by the ridiculous vagaries of her venerable parent. I forgot-we had another noticeable person, in the character of a young man, who had just obtained his license from the Independents, having previously occupied his time in the profitable calling of a pewterer. He had had a call, and, like honest Maw-worm, wanted to go a-preaching: why he chose Van Diemen's Land for the scene of his future labours in this line, was best known to himself; from what I saw of hini-and I saw a good deal-I do not think the Tasmanians will receive much benefit from his exhortations. Like too many of his "craft," the object of his mission was lucre-lucre, in its most filthy and abominable form; the trade of pewtering grew slack; that of preaching held out better prospects, and Van Diemen's Land was as good a shop to go to as any other, and to Van Diemen's Land did the Reverend Emanuel Roberts accordingly betake himself. Once fairly out at sea, the characters and peculiarities of the different individuals, soon began to develope themselves. Our reverend companion was always most devoutly sedate, and most seriously solemn; always, that is, except at those times, when he was engaged in pious conversation with a cherry-cheeked, buxom lass, the daughter of a broken down farmer, who came out in the steerage. This damsel, " fair and comely," was ardently addicted to ear-rings, to smart caps, bedizened with gauze ribbons, and, above all, to the wearing of very-very short petticoats. These things were an utter abomination to the reverend Emanuel, and he undertook the pleasing, but arduous task of reforming the gay and giddy fair one. Poor Mrs. Timkins afforded us a fund of unceasing amusement: her constant and manifold sufferings were so ludicrously expressed; that even her daughter, who really loved her very dearly, could not always preserve her gravity. Being gifted with but a small stock of patience, and not possessing the advantages of education, or good breeding, she gave vent to her feelings in good earnest aye, in "good set terms," regardless alike of the cause or the consequence. We had a smart gale from the south-west in the Bay of Biscay, and as this was the first disagremen we experienced in the way of bad weather, and, as it happened at night, the fears of the timid were the more conspicuously excited. We were scudding along under double-reefed top-sails, and I had been enjoying a splendid scene on the poop. There was a young moon, which, as it careered through the clouds, shed a faint and fitful light upon the boiling waters, just tinging the crests of the mighty waves, with a crisped edging of silvery foam. I was seaman enough to know, that so long as we kept our course before the wind, there could be no danger. Not so poor Mrs. Timkins. As the stately vessel pitched into the yawning gulf, or rose buoyantly over the lofty wave, Mrs. Timkins shrieked with all her might, and mumbled her prayers as fast as her fears would let her. Every moment, she imagined, must inevitably be her last; and as the sea dashed forcibly against the ship's bows, sending occasionally a heavy shower of spray on the deck, the rushing noise seemed a death-knell to her ears, and she gave herself up for lost. I was passing to my cabin, which was beyond that, occupied by Mrs. Timkins and her daughter, when the former, who was watching, with the door a-jar, made a dash at me as I passed, and in the most earnest manner imaginable, begged of me, for God's sake to tell her the worst. She knew we were going to be wrecked: ("here she grew sea-sick,") and that brute of a captain only laughed at her, when she spoke to him! "O! good God!" she exclaimed, as the ship lurched, and threw her with some violence against the bulk-head, "Was ever any unfortunate creature treated as I am? Captain! Maria!" (poor Maria was sick enough in her own berth)" where are ye all? Why wasn't I dead before ever I ventured to brave the perils of the wast hocean? and in such a stupid old tub as this Tom Thumb?" Here the ship gave another lurch, and Mrs. Timkins was fairly in my arms, hugging me with all her might, and with an energy, that fairly brought tears into my eyes. I used all my abilities to assuage her fears, and at last succeeded in persuading her to lie down in her berth, faithfully promising to apprize her of any addition to our perils. With the exception of this " spirt" of a gale, we had no further foul weather before we reached the Cape. But, I am somewhat anticipating. As we approached the line, the weather became beautifully fine and settled: we soon got into the "trades,” which wafted us along very comfortably at the rate of seven knots an hour. By this time, we had become tolerably well acquainted with each other. What little courtesy the captain ever took the trouble to exhibit, had long since vanished, and was now superseded by the coarse, rude, and consequential bearing of your regular, thoroughbred, tar-and-oakum skipper: Timmy Tarbottle, or, as he delighted to call himself, Timothy Tarry, was truly none of your fine gentlemen captains: he was, what many of these men are, a coarselyproud, and pompous tyrant, with-as far as regarded the comfort of his passengers no more concern than he had for the destinies of the Russian empire. Instead of considering his passengers as his guests, or rather his customers, he looked upon us as irksome incumbrances; and being a man of a horrid temper, we had abundant opportunities for the charitable exercise of our patience, and forbearance. It is really a sad pity, that owners of ships, will not pay more attention to the selection of their skippers. They seem to think, that if a man be a "smart" sailor, he is sufficiently qualified to undertake the management of a ship full of emigrants.: but how seldom does it happen, that individuals thus appointed, perform their engagements with satisfaction or propriety! The reason is obvious. Your mere all-in-all sailor is seldom a man of the world; still more seldom is he gifted with any extraordinary penetration, even into the most ordinary movements of human nature. He can work a ship to a nicety; he can navigate, with the aid of the sun; and even some are so supremely accomplished, as to be enabled to cut out, and superintend the making of a sail! So scantily are they furnished with common civilitypoliteness is entirely out of the question with them-that they consider every one on board their ship, infinitely beneath them, and "Drest in a little brief authority, Play such fantastic tricks before high heaven, The consequence of all this is, to persons coming to this Colony, on landing, the precious farce of advertisements in the Newspapers, bearing the most ardent testimony to the virtues, and kindnesses, and condescensions, and God knows what else, of the "most noble captain. But this senseless system must be amended. As emigration increases, and as it must increase, we must have decent, well-behaved carriers, to bring over our live stock. Competition will arise, and produce the desired reformation, and the sooner it comes, the better-for the public has suffered long enough under the capricious and tyrannical domination of the ill-bred, illiterate, but "smart" skipper. We crossed the line considerably to the southward, and before a breeze, which bore us gaily along at the rate of about six knots. For some days the sailors had been preparing for the usual siily mummeries, in which they delight to indulge on crossing the line; and poor Mrs. Timkins was in a perfect fever at the idea of being shaved-a notion we sedulously and most seriously inculcated, for the sake of the fun it afforded us. Now, Mrs. Timkins might have pretended indisposition, but there was an obstacle to this stratagem, which was insurmountable. Mrs. Timkins had an appetite; I do not mean that she merely ate her food with a gusto, but she positively devoured it; and rather than submit to the privations of the sick-list, she was determined to run the risk, even of a rough shave from Neptune's barber: not but what she was excessively indignant at the idea of such a proceeding;-indignant, indeed, she was, and vehemently did she vow vengeance against all concerned, if they dared to lay a finger upon her precious person; and as to her giving the men anything by way of procuring absolution-not she indeed! She would not give them one single farthing! And let them shave her, if they dared! She would shave them, if they did! and so on: The eventful day drew near, and the previous evening had arrived. Our men were as decent a crew as need be, but they were sailors, and determined to have their holiday, as they called it; and Neptune duly hailed the ship, promising a more formal and prolonged visit on the morrow, and departing, as usual, to the depths of his watery dominions in a flaming tar-barrel. The shaving part of the business is now never allowed in any well-regulated ships; the sailors being merely permitted to amuse themselves, deprived of this brutal addition to their sport; but the Tom Thumb was not a well-regulated ship, and the men were allowed a license by no means compatible with prudence, or creditable to their commander. One of the evils of this part of the day's proceedings is the opportunity it affords the sailors of venting their *One of the most egregious examples of this desperate humbug occurred on the arrival of the Princess Royal at Hobart Town. After having mistaken the entrance of the river, the vessel went aground, near Pitt-water. No sooner, however, were the emigrants landed, than a most flaming letter, signed by the matron (!) apppeared in the papers, bearing the most unqualified and flattering testimony to the captain's nautical abilities! |