s a
slender young fellow,--modest and thoughtful. If Hobson's bunk had
given way, I fear that his modesty and thoughtfulness might have been
put to a severe test. I looked down upon this young Wesleyan from my
materially exalted position, but before the voyage was over I learned to
look up to him from a spiritually low position. My impression is that
he was a "meek" man. I may be mistaken, but of this am I certain, that
he was one of the gentlest, and at the same time one of the most able
men in the ship.

But, to return to my berth--which, by the way, I was often loth to do,
owing to the confined air below, and the fresh glorious breezes on
deck--the man who slept under me was a young banker, a clerk, going out
to the Cape to make his fortune, and a fine capable-looking fellow he
was, inclined rather to be receptive than communicative. He frequently
bumped me with his head in getting up; I, not unfrequently, put a foot
upon his nose, or toes, in getting down.

What can I say about the sea that has not been said over and over again
in days of old? This, however, is worthy of record, that we passed the
famous Bay of Biscay in a dead-calm. We did not "lay" one single "day"
on that "Bay of Biscay, O!" The "O!" seems rather awkwardly to imply
that I am not stating the exact truth, but I assure you that it is a
fact. More than this, we had not a storm all the way to the Cape. It
was a pure pleasure excursion--a sort of yacht voyage--from beginning to
end; very pleasant at the time, and delightful now to dwell upon; for,
besides the satisfaction of making a new friend like Hobson, there were
others to whom I was powerfully drawn, both by natural sympathy and
intellectual bias.

There was a Wesleyan minister, also an Englishman, born in South Africa,
and of the race of Anak, with whom, and his amiable wife, and pretty
children, I fraternised ardently. My soul was also gladdened by
intercourse with a clergyman of the Dutch-Reformed Church, well-known in
the Cape, and especially in the Transvaal--who, with his pleasant wife
and daughter, was on his way back to South Africa after a brief trip to
Europe. He was argumentative; so, you know, am I. He was also
good-tempered, therefore we got on well.

It would be an endless business to name and describe all the passengers
who were personally attractive, and who were more or less worthy of
description. There were, among others, a genial and enthusiastic
Dutch-Africa