ter that we were never in want of the bare
necessaries of life. We received an allowance from the French
Government for our subsistence. The lieutenants received three
shillings a day; the purser, master and surgeons only two; and the
midshipmen but one shilling; on which, poor fellows, it was scarcely
possible for them to exist. The captains were allowed more, I believe,
and had a house found them some little way from Ou Trou, where they were
able to live in somewhat less discomfort than we did. They used,
however, their best exertions to lessen the inconveniences we were
doomed to suffer; but the authorities paid but little attention to their
representations. The residence hired by the midshipmen was even smaller
and in a more dilapidated condition than ours, and from the smallness of
their allowance, considering that their appetites were fully as good as
ours, they were truly very badly off, poor fellows. We of the
lieutenant's rank accordingly consulted together, and agreed to have our
mess in common for them and for ourselves. The midshipmen gratefully
accepted our offer, and each of us threw his pay into a common stock and
appointed two caterers to make the necessary arrangements and to
contract with one of the copper-coloured French shopkeepers to supply us
with breakfast and dinner and to do our washing. These arrangements
being made, we flattered ourselves that all would go on swimmingly.
Certainly our provisions were better and more abundant than we had
expected; but we fancied that we had fallen in with a liberal-minded
man, who was anxious to treat us well. We had a dreary time of it,
however. Day after day passed away much in the same way. We had no
shooting or fishing--no musical instruments--so that we had not even
music to relieve the monotony of our existence. We had but few books
also; some of us read them; but, generally speaking, under the relaxing
influence of the climate, we felt very little inclined for any literary
pursuit. A few games were invented which served to kill time, but
killing time is not a pleasant or inspiriting occupation, especially
when a man reflects that time is sure to kill him in the end. We walked
about the neighbourhood of our dreary abode as far as we were allowed to
go, but we soon got weary of the negro huts, and the palm-trees and the
rice fields and the coffee plantations, and the cocoa-nuts and plantains
and bananas, and the monkeys and opossums and racoons