sfaction with
the whole affair.

We had not been in the South Basin many minutes when the chaplain of The
Missions to Seamen was among us with his witty stories and, I believe,
his put-and-take teetotum. At any rate, the latter became as well
recognized a part of his equipment as his quips. At his invitation, I
went several times to the Mission, which was quite the rendezvous for
the crews of British ships in the port. Its concert room, its billiard
room and other comfortable places were generally very lively, the two
chaplains apparently possessing an inexhaustible reserve of cheerfulness.
English ladies too came there to brighten the evenings, to sing and
join in at cards and conversation; their generosity, I believe, furnished
the other refreshments of these evenings.

Next door to the Mission, a dingy annexe to a sort of grocery, labelled
the "British Bar," was not neglected. Talk and beer and smoke prevailed
here until midnight and afterwards: indeed, I had scarcely sat down
before a vast mate from some other ship had challenged me to name a better
Test Match captain than Mr. Fender. Other patrons of the Oval soon took
up the cry, but I resisted for the rest of the session.

The discharge of coal began, a monotonous process however considered;
down in the hold one saw through the busy dust a small but growing
mine-crater done in coal, at the foot of which were lying, stooping,
chattering, the nearly naked figures of the labourers. Negroes they
looked down there, but were white unofficially. They shovelled now from
this side, now from that into a great iron bucket: above, at a sign, the
man with his lever set the winch working and the derrick hoisted the
bucket up and over, then down into the lighter that lay alongside. And
so with intervals through the day. Then at night, the dock's aboriginal
mosquitoes came forth; as the mate said, like a German band, all the most
agonizing shades of musical audacity emanating from them. They drove not
only me but old hands out on deck at night, where a chilly autumn wind
was blowing, which drove us indoors again. But as the light grew, our
tormentors lessened. The sun ariseth, and they get them away together,
and lay them down in their dens.

To avoid these visitors as much as possible, I refrained from exploring
the town over tiringly during the day, and went off with Mead in his
shore suit after the evening's football on the dust-patch: and stayed as
late as meanderings in