m--a man who had a disease of the lungs wishing to have
his damaged finger taken off during the influence of chloroform. His
wish was complied with, and death resulted. We were expecting to run
into the channel and make a very rapid voyage, but were unfortunately
met by a strong easterly wind that kept us beating about for a
fortnight. Having 500 people on board and but a small supply of water,
our position became rather critical; for we were reduced from a quart to
a pint of water per man, and having no wine or beer to drink, were in
doubt what would come next. Several of the women and children suffered
severely from thirst, whilst the able-bodied men had to look at the salt
provisions with a hungry forbearance, salt beef, tongues, etc., not
being very thirst-quenching articles. I used to sit for a long time
with my feet in a tub of sea-water, and fancied that I was not so
thirsty in consequence. We tried to run for any port for succour, but
upon attempting Vigo, were checked by a two days' calm. A light breeze
at length wafted us into the Tagus, and two hours afterwards we dropped
anchor opposite Lisbon. I was very shortly up to my neck in a delicious
cold bath of the purest fresh water, in one of the most comfortable
rooms of the Braganza Hotel, when the buxom Mrs Dyson sent to know
whether I would like the champagne iced for dinner. This was rolling in
riches of luxury, after nearly starving of privation, and dying from
thirst.

We stayed several days at Lisbon, to enable the ship to be set to
rights, and us to get fresh provisions; during the delay I visited
Cintra, but I was not as much impressed with its glories and grandeur as
Byron seems to have been. This I have no doubt arose from having just
left Africa, where parts of the scenery are very similar (with the
exception that monasteries are there unknown), only on a much larger
scale. Cintra, therefore, looked to my eyes like a pocket edition or
model of what I had been accustomed to for nearly three years. I was
much struck with the beauty of many of the churches in Lisbon, and also
interested with the schools at Belem. It struck me however as cruel,
that in one large room, filled with boys, a window looked out into an
orange-grove where the ripe fruit hung in clusters within six feet of
the glass, against which the boys might flatten their noses in hungry
imagination but could not approach nearer to the tempting mouthful; the
same style of thing