in New Zealand, I suspect time is even less valued
than usual. They tell me that few mails leave New Zealand without
having to wait, on some pretext or another. There does not seem to be
the same activity, energy, and business aptitude that exists in the
Australian colonies. The Auckland people seem languid and half asleep.
Perhaps their soft, relaxing, winterless climate has something to do
with it.

Having nothing else to occupy me before the ship sailed, I took leave
of my Australian friend, gave him my last messages for Maryborough and
Majorca, and went on board. I was wakened up about midnight by the
noise of the anchor coming up; and, in a few minutes more, we were off
and on our way to Honolulu up the Pacific.

CHAPTER XX.

UP THE PACIFIC.

DEPARTURE FOR HONOLULU--MONOTONY OF A VOYAGE BY
STEAM--DESAGREMENS--THE "GENTLEMEN" PASSENGERS--THE ONE SECOND CLASS
"LADY"--THE RATS ON BOARD--THE SMELLS--FLYING FISH--CROSS THE
LINE--TREATMENT OF NEWSPAPERS ON BOARD--HAWAII IN SIGHT--ARRIVAL AT
HONOLULU.

When I went on deck next morning, we had left New Zealand far behind
us; not a speck of land was to be seen, and we were fairly on our way
to Honolulu. We have before us a clear run of about four thousand
miles, and if our machinery and coal keep good, we know that we shall
do it easily in about seventeen days.

Strange though it may seem, there is much greater monotony in a voyage
on board a steamer than there is on board a sailing vessel. There is
nothing like the same interest felt in the progress of the ship, and
thus one unfailing topic of conversation and speculation is shut out.
There are no baffling winds, no sleeping calms, alternating with a
joyous and invigorating run before the wind, such as we had when
coming out, from Plymouth to the Cape. We only know that we shall do
our average ten miles an hour, be the weather what it may. If the wind
is blowing astern, we run before it; if ahead, we run through it.
Fair or foul it matters but little.

[Illustration: (Maps of the Ship's Course up the Pacific, Auckland,
and Sydney, Port Jackson)]

A voyage by a steamer, compared with one by sailing ship, is what a
journey by railway train is to a drive across country in a well-horsed
stage coach. There is, however, this to be said in favour of the
former,--we know that, monotonous though it be, it is very much sooner
over; and on a voyage of some thousands of miles, we can calculate to
a day, and almost