we when he
considers that he is thus perched aloft, as it were, on a mere point in
the centre of the vast Atlantic. I have only described one of the many
very interesting excursions which may be made in Madeira. I should
think it must be a delightful place in which to spend a winter, and I
wonder more people do not go there. My friend described the Portuguese
inhabitants as the most polite and good-natured of all the people with
whom he ever had any intercourse; and as provisions are plentiful and
cheap, and the voyage can be performed in a week, I am surprised it is
not more frequented.

I thought it prudent to go on board that night, and fortunately I did
so, for at daybreak the next morning the captain ordered a gun to be
fired, the anchor to be hove up, and sail to be made. There was but
little wind, so a boat-load of passengers who had slept on shore had
just time half-dressed to reach the ship before she stood out of the
bay. Of course it was provoking to have to lose so much of a fair
breeze, but the ship was, I found, very far from being in a proper
condition to put to sea. We were to prove the proverb true, that "too
much haste is bad speed."

The condition of the passengers was somewhat improved, but still there
had not been time thoroughly to clean and dry their berths, or to wash
their clothes, while the decks were in want of caulking, and very little
of the superabundant ballast had been removed. Mr Henley had been
working very hard with those under him, but Mr Grimes declared that he
did not consider that the matter was of any consequence, and would do
nothing. Three or four days more spent in making the required
alterations would have prevented much after-suffering. It was some
hours before we sunk the lofty eminences of Madeira below the horizon.

I have hitherto said very little about my shipmates. The men were
mostly a rough set, now brought together for the first time, and without
that confidence which long acquaintance gives either in their officers
or in each other. Without being unduly familiar, I was on good terms
with most of them. I had done my very utmost to gain a knowledge of
everything about the ship, and had thus kept the respect which I at
first had gained, before they found out that I was really a greenhorn.
I now knew so much that I did not fear having to ask them questions, and
I thus quickly became versed in all the mysteries of knotting and
splicing, and numberless othe