who is an absolute sovereign
and holds uncontrolled sway over everything. Even the food depends
upon his generosity, and although it is generally not absolutely
bad, in the best instances, it is not equal to that on board a
steamer.

The following form the ordinary diet: tea and coffee without milk,
bacon and junk, soup made with pease or cabbage, potatoes, hard
dumplings, salted cod, and ship-biscuit. On rare occasions, ham,
eggs, fish, pancakes, or even skinny fowls, are served out. It is
very seldom, in small ships, that bread can be procured.

To render the living more palatable, especially on a long voyage,
passengers would do well to take with them a few additions to the
ship's fare. The most suitable are: portable soup and captain's
biscuit--both of which should be kept in tin canisters to preserve
them from mouldiness and insects--a good quantity of eggs, which,
when the vessel is bound for a southern climate, should first be
dipped in strong lime-water or packed in coal-dust; rice, potatoes,
sugar, butter, and all the ingredients for making sangaree and
potato-salad, the former being very strengthening and the latter
very cooling. I would strongly recommend those who have children
with them to take a goat as well.

As regards wine, passengers should take especial care to ask the
captain whether this is included in the passage-money, otherwise it
will have to be purchased from him at a very high rate.

There are also other objects which must not be forgotten, and above
all a mattress, bolster, and counterpane, as the berths are
generally unfurnished. These can be purchased very cheaply in any
seaport town.

Besides this, it is likewise advisable to take a stock of coloured
linen. The office of washerwoman is filled by a sailor, so that it
may easily be imagined that the linen does not return from the wash
in the best possible condition.

When the sailors are employed in shifting the sails, great care must
be taken to avoid injury by the falling of any of the ropes. But
all these inconveniences are comparatively trifling; the greatest
amount of annoyance begins towards the end of the voyage. The
captain's mistress is his ship. At sea he allows her to wear an
easy neglige, but in port she must appear in full dress. Not a sign
of the long voyage, of the storms, of the glowing heat she has
suffered, must be visible. Then begins an incessant hammering,
planing, and sawing; every flaw, every cra