d twenty-six passengers in the cuddy, and
nearly forty emigrants in the 'tween decks. We had just picked up the
north-east trades, blowing fresh, and the `old man', who was a rare hand
at carrying on, and was eager to break the record, was driving her along
to the south'ard under every rag that we could show to it, including
such fancy fakements as skysails, ringtails, water-sails, and all the
rest of it. It was a fine, clear, starlit night, with just the trade-
clouds driving along overhead, but there was no moon, and consequently,
when an exceptionally big patch of cloud came sweeping up, it fell a bit
dark. Still, there was no danger--or ought to have been none--for we
were well out of the regular track of the homeward-bounders, and in any
case, with a proper look-out, it would have been possible to see another
craft plenty early enough to give her a good wide berth. But after Jack
has got as far south as we then were he is apt to get a bit careless in
the matter of keeping a look-out--trusts rather too much to the officer
of the watch aft, you know, and is not above snatching a cat-nap in the
most comfortable corner he can find, instead of posting himself on the
heel of the bowsprit, with his eyes skinned and searching the sea ahead
of him.

"Now, it happened--although none of us knew it until it was too late--
that our chief mate had rather too strong a liking for rum; not that he
was exactly what you might call a drunkard, you know, but he kept a
bottle in his cabin, and was in the habit of taking a nip just whenever
he felt like it, especially at night time; and on this particular night
that I'm talking about he must have taken a nip too many, for when he
came on deck at midnight to keep the middle watch he hadn't been up
above an hour before he coiled himself down in one of the passenger's
deck-chairs and--went to sleep. Of course, under such circumstances as
those of which I am speaking--the weather being fine and the wind
steady, with no necessity to touch tack or sheet--the watch on deck
don't make any pretence of keeping awake; they're on deck and at hand
all ready for a call if they're needed, and that's as much as is
expected of 'em at night time, since there's no work to be done; and the
consequence was that all hands of us were sound asleep long before the
mate; and there is no doubt that the look-out--who lost his life, poor
chap! through his carelessness--fell asleep too. As to the man at the
whe