rney. A great portion of my limited capital
was, with the kind aid of a medical friend, invested in medicines
which I had reason to believe would be useful; with the remainder I
purchased those home comforts which I thought would be most difficult
to obtain away from England.

I had scarcely set my foot on board the "Hollander," before I met a
friend. The supercargo was the brother of the Mr. S----, whose death
in Jamaica the reader will not have forgotten, and he gave me a hearty
welcome. I thought the meeting augured well, and when I told him my
plans he gave me the most cheering encouragement. I was glad, indeed,
of any support, for, beyond all doubt, my project was a hazardous one.

So cheered at the outset, I watched without a pang the shores of
England sink behind the smooth sea, and turned my gaze hopefully to
the as yet landless horizon, beyond which lay that little peninsula to
which the eyes and hearts of all England were so earnestly directed.

So, cheerily! the good ship ploughed its way eastward ho! for Turkey.

CHAPTER IX.

VOYAGE TO CONSTANTINOPLE--MALTA--GIBRALTAR--CONSTANTINOPLE,
AND WHAT I THOUGHT OF IT--VISIT TO SCUTARI HOSPITAL--MISS
NIGHTINGALE.

I am not going to risk the danger of wearying the reader with a long
account of the voyage to Constantinople, already worn threadbare by
book-making tourists. It was a very interesting one, and, as I am a
good sailor, I had not even the temporary horrors of sea-sickness to
mar it. The weather, although cold, was fine, and the sea
good-humouredly calm, and I enjoyed the voyage amazingly. And as day
by day we drew nearer to the scene of action, my doubts of success
grew less and less, until I had a conviction of the rightness of the
step I had taken, which would have carried me buoyantly through any
difficulties.

On the way, of course, I was called up from my berth at an
unreasonable hour to gaze upon the Cape of St. Vincent, and expected
to feel duly impressed when the long bay where Trafalgar's fight was
won came in view, with the white convent walls on the cliffs above
bathed in the early sunlight. I never failed to take an almost
childish interest in the signals which passed between the "Hollander"
and the fleet of vessels whose sails whitened the track to and from
the Crimea, trying to puzzle out the language these children of the
ocean spoke in their hurried course, and wondering whether any, or
what sufficiently important