n.

CHAPTER XXVI

A disagreeable accident happens to me in the discharge of my
office--Morgan's nose is offended--a dialogue between him and the Ship's
steward--upon examination, I find more causes of complaint than one--my
hair is cut off--Morgan's cookery--the manner of sleeping on board--I am
waked in the night by a dreadful noise

Could not comprehend how it was possible for the attendants to come near
those who hung on the inside towards the sides of the ship, in order to
assist them, as they seemed barricadoed by those who lay on the outside,
and entirely out of the reach of all visitation; much less could I
conceive how my friend Thompson would be able to administer clysters,
that were ordered for some, in that situation; when I saw him thrust his
wig in his pocket, and strip himself to his waistcoat in a moment, then
creep on all fours under the hammocks of the sick, and, forcing up his
bare pate between two, keep them asunder with one shoulder, until he had
done his duty. Eager to learn the service, I desired he would give me
leave to perform the next operation of that kind; and he consenting,
I undressed myself after his example, and crawling along, the ship
happened to roll: this motion alarming me, I laid hold of the first
thing that came within my grasp with such violence, that I overturned
it, and soon found, by the smell that issued upon me, that I had
unlocked a box of the most delicious perfume. It was well for me that
my nose was none of the most delicate, else I know not how I might have
been affected by this vapour, which diffused itself all over the ship,
to the utter discomposure of everybody who tarried on the same dock!
neither was the consequence of this disgrace confined to my sense of
smelling only; for I felt my misfortune more ways than one. That I might
not, however, appear altogether disconcerted in this my first essay,
I got up, and, pushing my head with great force between two hammocks,
towards the middle, where the greatest resistance was, I made an opening
indeed, but, not understanding the knack of dexterously turning my
shoulder to maintain my advantage, had the mortification to find myself
stuck up, as it were, in a pillory, and the weight of three or four
people bearing on each side of my neck, so that I was in danger of
strangulation. While I remained in this defenceless posture, one of the
sick men, rendered peevish by his distemper, was so enraged at the
smell I had o