land
disappeared behind the horizon. So far no one was seasick, but no one
had much appetite. The table was placed on deck, or rather the deck was
used as a table. The ship being overcrowded, the deck was cluttered
with cases of sulphuric acid, kegs of water for use during the passage,
and planks cut ready to be erected and made into houses upon our
arrival. In addition, we carried a dozen small houses that were already
built and were no more trouble to erect than to assemble a clock. These
had been built at Havre and sold for 100 up to 125 francs.
The
first day, as is customary soon after leaving port, dinner consisted of
soup, some boiled meat, a quart of wine, and an extremely small portion
of bread. This at once led us to believe that bread was not abundant on
board. As a matter of fact, later on we had bread only on Sundays and
Thursdays; on other days we ate biscuits. For every eight passengers
there was a large tin bowl; into this each one dipped his plate, which
was his complete table service. We squatted down like Orientals and ate
in this fashion. That same day on toward eight o'clock in the evening,
we fell in with some south winds. These continued to blow throughout
the night and by the following day were violent enough to carry us off
the English coast. Here a fisherman came aboard; his boat was full of
fish. After some bargaining he took off our mail.
One
of the crying needs of man who travels far, traverses a vast expanse of
water, and finds himself surrounded solely by sky and water, is the
need to send back news to those from whom he has just parted. He feels
so minute in this vast stretch of universe that by binding himself by
means of a letter to land he affords himself the consolation of feeling
that he is not utterly lost. Unfortunate indeed are those who, under
these conditions, have no one to whom to write! The fisherman went off
loaded down like a postman with mail.
The
evening of our second day out the winds again veered without having
caused the loss of much time, or proven wearisome. From then on we made
steady headway. The captain who, as has been said, was quite
parsimonious, owing to the small amount of wheat carried aboard, with
bread, had placated us by saying that we were to put in at Madeira and
take on potatoes. The winds, however, being favourable, from the
standpoint of economy of time it seemed wiser not fail to make several
pointed remarks that led him to understand
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