reupon Lord Southdown was
sent into the captain's cabin for the packet in question; and on his
reappearance a few minutes later we jumped into the boat and went ashore
together, his lordship regaling me on the way with sundry entertaining
anecdotes whereof his humorous friend Tomkins was the hero.

We managed to execute our respective errands without losing any of the
boat's crew; and duly putting Lord Southdown on board the _Saint George_
again, I returned triumphantly to the _Daphne_ with my consignment of
eggs and handed them over intact to Mr Austin. After which I dived
below, just in time to partake of the first dinner provided for me at
the expense of His Most Gracious Majesty George IV.

For the remainder of that day and during the whole of the next, until
nearly ten o'clock at night, we were up to our eyes in the business of
completing stores, etcetera, and, generally, in getting the ship ready
for sea; and at daybreak on the second morning after I had joined, the
fore-topsail was loosed, blue peter run up to the fore royal-mast head,
the boats hoisted in and stowed, and the messenger passed, after which
all hands went to breakfast. At nine o'clock the captain's gig was sent
on shore, and at 11 a.m. the skipper came off; his boat was hoisted up
to the davits, the canvas loosed, the anchor tripped, and away we went
down the Solent and out past the Needles, with a slashing breeze at
east-south-east and every stitch of canvas set, from the topgallant
studding-sails downwards.

CHAPTER FOUR.

A BOAT-EXCURSION INTO THE CONGO.

Our skipper's instructions were to the effect that he was, in the first
instance, to report himself to the governor of Sierra Leone; and it was
to that port, therefore, that we now made the best of our way.

The breeze with which we started carried us handsomely down channel and
half-way across the Bay of Biscay, and the ship proving to be a regular
flyer, everybody, from the skipper downwards, was in the very best of
spirits. Then came a change, the wind backing out from south-west with
squally weather which placed us at once upon a taut bowline; and
simultaneously with this change of weather a most disagreeable discovery
was made, namely, that the _Daphne_ was an exceedingly crank ship.

However, we accomplished the passage in a little over three weeks; and
after remaining at Sierra Leone for a few hours only, proceeded for the
mouth of the Congo, off which we expected to fall i