ories as we sat on deck
in the evening. I called her Constance: I did not then know her by any
other name. Altogether, there were five ladies on board; for in those
days more ladies went to India than ever came back. Then sanitary
precautions were not as well-known as they are at present, and fever and
cholera claimed their victims in the Land of the Sun. I will refer only
to those with whom I was afterwards associated; and these were Mrs
Apton, a widow, and her daughter, a girl about twelve years old.

Our voyage continued, without anything remarkable occurring, until three
days after we had passed the Mauritius, when it became calm, and for
three days we merely drifted helplessly on a calm sea. On the fourth
day it became dark and gloomy; there were no actual clouds, but the sky
was nearly black, the sun was invisible, and the captain and his
officers looked anxious, whilst the passengers gathered together in
groups, and talked in low tones.

I had noticed that the captain had gone several times into the cabin and
looked at a long wooden instrument that seemed to interest him much, and
which I have since learned was a barometer. By means of this instrument
and the indications in the sky, he knew that a storm was coming. In the
days of sailing-vessels a storm was a more serious matter than it is in
the present days of steam. A lee shore is now not a matter of such
extreme danger; for a steamer is not at the mercy of the winds, though
she cannot escape the fury of the waves.

Darker and darker became the sky, whilst the ship was stripped of all
her sails except one on the fore mast and one on the mizen, and every
one was watching anxiously for the first burst of the expected storm.
It was about the hour of sunset when the gale began, and we ran before
it for a few minutes, the sea as yet being calm. Suddenly the wind
chopped round, and before the ship could obey her helm she was taken
aback, the foresail flattened against the mast, and in another instant
the mast snapped like a twig, and fell on deck. The passengers, at the
commencement of the storm, had been ordered below so as to be out of the
way of the sailors, and it was merely from the reports that the mates
occasionally brought us, that we knew what was happening on deck. The
sea soon rose, and the ship lifted and fell, just as though she had been
a small boat. During two days the gale continued; but no fears were
entertained for the vessel's safety