sea would not see any great change in the appearance of
the land; the trail of smoke going levelly south-west from a tall smoke
stalk would be the most conspicuous change.

[18] The Cooum is silvery to look at, but it is by its smell that people
remember it.

Two steamers lie near us, just heaving perceptibly, as if breathing
before taking the high road. Outside it blows a very little, a warm,
damp wind; there will be a roll in the Bay of Bengal and we will head
into it, and the natives' jollity will change to moans. I should think
the ship's boats in emergency could hold a sixth of them. I hear there
are some 2500, the three decks are choked with them fore and aft. Our
tiny saloon and cabins are right astern and to port and starboard, and
forward of it, are these natives; we are only separated from them by a
board or two with a port-holes in it, and, the difference of fare! We
pay ninety rupees each to Rangoon and they pay one each; if we open our
port we might as well be all together, except that they get the first of
the air. Unless we keep the blind pulled, night and day, we are
subjected to "their incorrigible stare," which the Portuguese pioneers
found so remarkable; their odour and noise is intolerable. For my _Boy_
I've paid twelve rupees, and he has the same deck space as the other
natives, that is, barely sufficient room to lie down in. The only deck
space we first class passengers have, is above the saloon, where the
second class deck is, on the P. & O., a nice enough place if it wasn't
overlooked by the natives amidship, and over-smelt by the whole 2500
coolies. Fortunately to-day, the 6th, there's a lovely north-east breeze
which takes away some of the monkey-house smell and noise. We count that
there are forty natives in each of the two alleyways on either side of
our cabins, so eighty rupees (a rupee is 1s. 4d.), less profit to the
Company, and we could all have been decently comfortable. But even
without moving them, one A.B. told off to keep them quiet would have
allowed us to sleep at night.

Sunday morning.--All night, all day, whiffs of pure north-east air, and
solid native; alternating, and all the time rising and falling,
shouting, singing, arguing, quarrelling.

Heaven be thanked we have a pleasant enough company among ourselves, and
the natives don't intrude more than parts of their bodies into the
saloon doors and ports when the squeeze at the outside gets very strong,
but they gaze stolidly