vy. I was not aware at the time of its existence,
but I have since witnessed its horrible ravages among crews
insufficiently supplied with antiscorbutics, or who have neglected the
ordinary precautions against it.

I every day made excursions to try and effect my liberation. The crate
must have had something weighty on the top of it, I thought, or I should
have been able to force it open. It had hitherto resisted all my
efforts, though I frequently spent an hour within it.

The ship all this time was gliding on smoothly, and I supposed was
making a prosperous passage. I occasionally pictured to myself what was
going on over my head, canvas spread below and aloft, the ship under her
courses, topsails, topgallant sails and royals with studdingsails rigged
out on either side. The sea glittering in the rays of the sun, the sky
bright, the captain and officers walking the deck or reading in their
cabins. The crew lolling about with folded arms, smoking their pipes or
spinning yarns. I forgot that some of them would be employed in
spinning very different sorts of yarns to what I fancied, and that chief
mates are not apt to allow man to spend their time with their arms
folded, doing nothing. On and on sailed the ship. The atmosphere was
becoming sensibly warmer. I supposed that we should soon get into a
tropical climate, and that then I might find it disagreeably hot even
down below. But I didn't allow myself to think of the future, as I was
beginning to abandon all hope of working my way out.

My desire now was that the ship might reach a port in safety, and begin
to discharge her cargo; when I should have the chance of liberating
myself. I did not, however, abandon altogether my efforts, and the
exercise I thus took every day contributed to keep me in health. During
the time I was sitting down and not sleeping, I employed myself in
repeating all the English poetry and Latin speeches I had learnt, and
sometimes I even attempted to sing the sea songs of which I had been so
fond--"Cease, rude Boreas," "One night it blew a hurricane," "Come, all
ye jolly sailors bold," "Here a sheer hulk lies poor Tom Bowling," and
many others; but my voice was evidently not in singing trim, and I
failed to do what Orpheus might have accomplished, to charm the rats
from their hiding-places.

The sea continued calm for some time; at all events I felt no movement
to indicate that it was otherwise; but whether the ship was moving fa