and there, loud complaints were heard on every side, threats
were made to report trivialities to the captain, and altogether there was
plenty to amuse us.

Next day, however, when we began to bow gracefully to the heavy swell of
the Atlantic the majority of the grumblers were glad enough to seek the
comfort and privacy of their berths and to remain there, for during the
two days that followed the waves ran mountains high, the wind howled, the
bulkheads creaked and the vessel made plunges so unexpectedly that to
stand was almost impossible. The great waves seemed to rush upon us as we
ploughed our way through them, sometimes burying our bows in foam and at
others striking us and lifting us high up, the shock almost causing us to
stop. The roar of the tempest seemed deafening, the ship's bell tolled
with regularity, but no one appeared in the saloon, and it seemed as if
the cook in his galley had little, if anything, to do.

"Never mind," I heard one officer say to another, as they lounged outside
their cabins off duty. "It'll give 'em their sea legs, and the weather
will be all right the other side of the Bay."

Both laughed. Sailors seem to enjoy the discomforts of passengers.

During those two days I think we were the only passengers who spent the
whole day on deck. Kouaga was a poor sailor and was in his bunk horribly
bad. When we visited him the whites of his eyes seemed perfectly green.

This was my first taste of a storm, and I must confess that I did not
enjoy it. I was not ill, but experienced a feeling the reverse of
comfortable. Through all, however, I congratulated myself that I had
actually left England, and was about to commence life in a new land. The
officer whose words I had overheard proved a prophet, for after three
days of bad weather we ran into blue water, calm as a mill-pond, the sun
shone out warm and bright, as quickly as the spirits of the passengers
had fallen they rose again, and a round of gaiety commenced that
continued unbroken until we left the vessel.

We touched at Funchal, a pretty town of white villas half hidden by the
surrounding greenery, and with others went ashore, but we were not there
more than a couple of hours, for soon the Blue-Peter was run to our
masthead as signal that the ship was about to sail, and we were compelled
to re-embark. Then a gun was fired on board, the crowd of small craft
around us that had put out for the purpose of selling the passengers
bananas, live