smen with rifles and cartridge
cases who were hoping to shoot alligators, &c., all bound like myself
for the West Indian mail steamer. The elders talked of sugar and of
bounties, and of the financial ruin of the islands. I had heard of this
before I started, and I learnt little from them which I had not known
already; but I had misgivings whether I was not wandering off after all
on a fool's errand. I did not want to shoot alligators, I did not
understand cane growing or want to understand it, nor was I likely to
find a remedy for encumbered and bankrupt landowners. I was at an age
too when men grow unfit for roaming, and are expected to stay quietly at
home. Plato says that to travel to any profit one should go between
fifty and sixty; not sooner because one has one's duties to attend to as
a citizen; not after because the mind becomes hebetated. The chief
object of going abroad, in Plato's opinion, is to converse with [Greek:
theioi andres] inspired men, whom Providence scatters about the globe,
and from whom alone wisdom can be learnt. And I, alas! was long past the
limit, and [Greek: theioi andres] are not to be met with in these times.
But if not with inspired men, I might fall in at any rate with sensible
men who would talk on things which I wanted to know. Winter and spring
in a warm climate were pleasanter than a winter and spring at home; and
as there is compensation in all things, old people can see some objects
more clearly than young people can see them. They have no interest of
their own to mislead their perception. They have lived too long to
believe in any formulas or theories. 'Old age,' the Greek poet says, 'is
not wholly a misfortune. Experience teaches things which the young know
not.'[1] Old men at any rate like to think so.

The 'Moselle,' in which I had taken my passage, was a large steamer of
4,000 tons, one of the best where all are good--on the West Indian mail
line. Her long straight sides and rounded bottom promised that she would
roll, and I may say that the promise was faithfully kept; but except to
the stomachs of the inexperienced rolling is no disadvantage. A vessel
takes less water on board in a beam sea when she yields to the wave than
when she stands up stiff and straight against it. The deck when I went
on board was slippery with ice. There was the usual crowd and confusion
before departure, those who were going out being undistinguishable, till
the bell rang to clear the ship, from th