eddy beyond.

As far as I could judge, they were the happiest of people, literally
taking no thought for the morrow, and content with the barest
necessaries of life, so long as they were free and the sun shone
brightly. We had many opportunities of cultivating their acquaintance,
for the captain allowed us much liberty, quite one-half of the crew and
officers being ashore most of the time. Of course, the majority spent
all their spare time in the purlieus of the town, which, like all such
places anywhere, were foul and filthy enough; but that was their own
faults. I have often wondered much to see men, who on board ship were
the pink of cleanliness and neatness, fastidious to a fault in all they
did, come ashore and huddle in the most horrible of kennels, among the
very dregs and greaves of the 'long-shore district. It certainly wants a
great deal of explanation; but I suppose the most potent reason is, that
sailors, as a class, never learn to enjoy themselves rationally. They
are also morbidly suspicions of being taken in hand by anybody who
would show them anything worth seeing, preferring to be led by the human
sharks that infest all seaports into ways of strange nastiness, and so
expensive withal that one night of such wallowing often costs them more
than a month's sane recreation and good food would. All honour to the
devoted men and women who labour in our seaports for the moral and
material benefit of the sailor, passing their lives amidst sights and
sounds shocking and sickening to the last degree, reviled, unthanked,
unpaid. Few are the missionaries abroad whose lot is so hard as theirs.

We spent ten happy days in Honolulu, marred only by one or two drunken
rows among the chaps forward, which, however, resulted in their getting
a severe dressing down in the forecastle, where good order was now kept.
There had been no need for interference on the part of the officers,
which I was glad to see, remembering what would have happened under such
circumstances not long ago. Being short-handed, the captain engaged a
number of friendly islanders for a limited period, on the understanding
that they were to be discharged at their native place, Vau Vau. There
were ten of them, fine stalwart fellows, able bodied and willing as
possible. They were cleanly in their habits, and devout members of the
Wesleyan body, so that their behaviour was quite a reproach to some of
our half-civilized crew. Berths were found for them in the