e came. The cloth, consisting of a
piece of an old sail, was instantly laid, covered with three plates,
which by the colour I could with difficulty discern to be metal, and as
many spoons of the same composition, two of which were curtailed in the
handles, and the other abridged in the lip. Mr. Morgan himself enriched
this mess with a lump of salt butter scooped from an old gallipot, and
a handful of onions shorn, with some pounded pepper. I was not very much
tempted with the appearance of this dish, of which, nevertheless, my
messmates ate heartily, advising me to follow their example, as it was
banyan day and we could have no meat till next noon. But I had already
laid in sufficient for the occasion, and therefore desired to be
excused: expressing a curiosity to know the meaning of banyan day. They
told me, that, on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays, the ship's company
had no allowance of meat, and that these meagre days were called banyan
days, the reason of which they did not know; but I have since learned
they take their denomination from a sect of devotees in some parts of
the East Indies, who never taste flesh.

After dinner Thompson led me round the ship, showed me the different
parts, described their uses, and, as far as he could, made me acquainted
with the particulars of the discipline and economy practised on board.
He then demanded of the boatswain a hammock for me, which was slung in
a very neat manner by my friend Jack Rattlin; and, as I had no
bed-clothes, procured credit for me with the purser, for a mattress and
two blankets. At seven o'clock in the evening Morgan visited the sick,
and, having ordered what was proper for each, I assisted Thompson in
making up his prescriptions: but when I followed him with the medicines
into the sick berth, or hospital, and observed the situation of the
patients, I was much less surprised that people should die on board,
than that a sick person should recover. Here I saw about fifty miserable
distempered wretches, suspended in rows, so huddled one upon another,
that not more than fourteen inches space was allotted for each with his
bed and bedding; and deprived of the light of the day, as well as of
fresh air; breathing nothing but a noisome atmosphere of the morbid
steams exhaling from their own excrements and diseased bodies, devoured
with vermin hatched in the filth that surrounded them, and destitute of
every convenience necessary for people in that helpless conditio