n who were sent out under his protection. He talked much
of his responsibility, and divided the whole of his time between his
chronometers and his young ladies; in both of which a trifling error was
a source of irritation. Upon any deviation on the part of either, the
first were rated carefully, the latter were _rated soundly_; considering
the safety of the ship to be endangered on the one hand, and the
character of his ship to be equally at stake on the other. It was
maliciously observed that the latter were by far the more erratic of the
two; and still more maliciously, that the austere behaviour on the part
of Captain Drawlock was all pretence; that he was as susceptible as the
youngest officer in the ship; and that the women found it out long
before the voyage was completed.

It has been previously mentioned that all the passengers were on shore,
except two, a Presbyterian divine and his wife, the expenses attending
whose passage out were provided for by a subscription which had been put
on foot by some of the serious people of Glasgow, who prayed fervently,
and enlivened their devotions with most excellent punch. The worthy
clergyman (for worthy he was) thought of little else but his calling,
and was a sincere, enthusiastic man, who was not to be checked by any
consideration in what he considered to be his duty; but although he
rebuked, he rebuked mildly, and never lost his temper. Stern in his
creed, which allowed no loophole by which the offender might escape,
still there was a kindness and even a humility in his expostulation,
which caused his zeal never to offend, and often to create serious
reflection. His wife was a tall, handsome woman, who evidently had
usurped an ascendancy over her husband in all points unconnected with
his calling. She too was devout; but hers was not the true religion,
for it had not charity for its basis. She was clever and severe; spoke
seldom; but the few words which escaped from her lips were sarcastic in
their tendency.

The passengers who still remained on shore were numerous. There was an
old colonel, returning from a three years' furlough, the major part of
which had been spent at Cheltenham. He was an Adonis of sixty, with
yellow cheeks and white teeth; a man who had passed through life doing
nothing; had risen in his profession without having seen service, except
on one occasion, and of that circumstance he made the most. With a good
constitution and happy temperam