een-decks. Here again the liberality of the ship's owners became
manifest, for the whole fitting up of the place was vastly superior to
what was at that time considered good enough accommodation for
emigrants; the married quarters consisting of a number of quite
comfortable and roomy cabins; while the spaces allotted to the
accommodation of the single men and women ensured to their occupants
such complete privacy as was deemed quite unnecessary in those days. I
found that it was the duty of the emigrants to keep their own quarters
clean, and this seemed to have been somewhat neglected of late. I
therefore gave orders that all hands should at once turn-to and give the
'tween-decks a thorough cleansing, in readiness for another inspection
by myself at eight bells in the afternoon watch.

The emigrants aboard the _Mercury_ numbered two hundred all told; namely
thirty-three married couples, twenty-eight unmarried women, forty-two
unmarried men, and sixty-four children, of whom one--a sweet, good-
tempered baby girl--had been born during the voyage. They, the
emigrants, seemed to be a very mixed lot, ranging from clod-hopping,
agricultural labourers, whose intelligence seemed insufficient to enable
them to appreciate the wonder of a flying-fish or the beauty of a
golden, crimson, and purple sunset, to individuals of so refined and
intellectual an appearance and so polished a behaviour, that the fact of
their being 'tween-deck passengers seemed nothing short of a grotesque
incongruity.

When I went below again, at eight bells, to inspect the emigrants'
quarters, I found them sweet, clean, and altogether very much more
wholesome than they had been upon the occasion of my first visit, and I
expressed my gratification at the change, hinting pretty strongly that I
should expect the place to be maintained in that condition for the
remainder of the voyage; at which remark one of the occupants--a pale,
delicate-looking girl--exclaimed:

"Oh, sir, I only hope that you will insist upon that! Some of the
people here--especially the men--are shockingly lazy, and would never do
a hand's turn of work if they were not made to."

"I am much obliged to you for the hint," said I. "I will find out the
identity of those especially lazy ones, and see if I cannot imbue them
with a good wholesome hatred of idleness before we arrive in the land,
where those who won't work must starve."

By sunset that night the _Salamis_ had slid so far