CHAPTER FOUR.
THE OUTWARD VOYAGE.
By eight o'clock next morning--at which hour the passengers sat down tobreakfast--the _Galatea_ was off Dungeness, which she rounded with asomewhat freshening breeze, and noon saw her fairly abreast of BeachyHead. The weather was magnificent; the breeze, whilst fresh enough towaft the good ship through the water at the rate of an honest ten knotsin the hour, was not sufficiently strong to raise much sea; the onlyresult, therefore, was a slight leisurely roll, which the passengersfound agreeable rather than the reverse, and everybody was consequentlyin the most exuberant spirits, congratulating themselves and each otheron so auspicious a commencement to their voyage.
As for Bob, he was in the seventh heaven of delight. The nobleproportions of the beautiful craft which bore him so gallantly over thesummer sea, her spotless cleanliness, the perfect order and method withwhich the various duties were performed, and the consideration withwhich he was treated by his superiors, constituted for him a novelexperience, in strong contrast to the wet and dirt, the often severetoil, and the rough-and-ready habits of the collier seamen on board the_Betsy Jane_. From the moment that Bob had assumed duty on board the_Galatea_ Captain Staunton had taken pains to make matters pleasant forhim; he had spoken freely of the heavy obligation under which heconsidered that Bob had laid him, and had extolled in the most laudatoryterms the lad's behaviour during that terrible winter night upon theGunfleet; Bob, therefore, found himself the possessor of a reputationwhich commanded universal admiration and respect in the little communityof which he was a member, with the result that he was quiteunconsciously accorded a distinction which under other circumstances itwould have been vain for him to hope. Thus, when our hero foundhimself, as he frequently did, a guest at the saloon dinner-table(Captain Staunton following the example of the commanders in the navy byoccasionally inviting his officers to dine with him), the passengersalmost unanimously received him into their midst with a friendly warmthwhich they accorded to none of the other subordinates on board, agreeingto regard in him as pleasant eccentricities those frequent lapses ingrammar and pronunciation which they would have resented in others asthe evidences of a decided inferiority, to be kept at a distance by thecoldest and most studied disdain.
Captain Staunton took an early opportunity to speak to Bob respectinghis unfortunate lack of education and culture. They were alone togetherin the chart-room at the moment, whither the skipper had called Bob, inorder that their conversation might be strictly private.
"Robert," said he--he always addressed Bob as "Robert" when what he hadto say was unconnected with duty--"Robert, my boy, I wish to say a wordor two to you respecting your education, which, I fear, has beensomewhat neglected--as, indeed, might reasonably be expected, seeing howfew educational advantages usually fall in the way of a fisher-lad.Now, this must be remedied as speedily as possible. I am anxious thatyou should become not only a first-rate seaman and thorough navigator,but also a polished gentleman, in order that you may be fitted to fillthe highest posts attainable in the profession which you have chosen.When I was your age if a man knew enough to enable him to safelynavigate his ship from place to place that was about all that wasrequired of him. But times have changed since then; the English havebecome a nation of travellers; passenger-ships have enormously increasedin number, and the man who now commands one is expected, in addition tohis other duties, to play the part of a courteous and intelligent hostto those who take passage with him. To enable him to perform thisportion of his duties satisfactorily a liberal education and polishedmanners are necessary, and both of these you must acquire, my boy.There is only one way of attaining the possession of these requisites,and that is--study. The intelligent study of books will give you theeducation; and the study of your fellow-creatures, their speech, habits,and demeanour, will give you polish, by showing you what things toimitate and what to avoid. Now, you have an excellent opportunity tocommence both these branches of study at once. Mr Eastlake, themissionary, takes the greatest interest in you, and has offered not onlyto lend you the necessary books, but also to give you two hours' tuitiondaily, an offer which I have ventured to thankfully accept on yourbehalf. And in addition to this you have sixteen passengers to study.Some of them are perfect gentlemen, others, I am sorry to say, areanything but that. Your own good sense will point out to you what isworthy of imitation and what should be avoided in the manners of thosearound you, and I think you are sharp and intelligent enough to quicklyprofit by your observations. Keep your eyes and ears open, and yourmouth as much as possible shut, just for the present, and I have nodoubt you will soon make headway. In addition to the two hours' tuitionwhich Mr Eastlake has promised you I intend to give you two more; MrEastlake's tuition will be in various branches of useful knowledge, andmine will be in navigation. Your studies will be conducted here in thechart-room, and I have very little doubt but that, if you are only halfas willing to learn as we are to teach, you will have made aconsiderable amount of progress by the time that we arrive at Sydney;indeed, as far as navigation is concerned, it is by no means anintricate science, and there is no reason why you should not be askilled navigator by the time that we reach Australia."
Bob had the good sense to fully appreciate the immense value of theadvantages thus proffered to him. He was intelligent enough to at oncerecognise the vast intellectual distance which intervened betweenhimself, a poor, ignorant fisher-lad, and the highly-educated men andwomen who were to be found among the saloon passengers, as well as thewide difference between his own awkward, embarrassed manner and thequiet, easy, graceful demeanour which distinguished some of theindividuals to be seen daily on the poop of the _Galatea_. The sense ofhis inferiority already weighed heavily upon him; the opportunity nowoffered him of throwing it off was therefore eagerly and gratefullyaccepted, and he at once plunged _con amore_ into the studies which weremarked out for him.
Mr Eastlake--the gentleman who had undertaken to remedy, as far as timepermitted, the serious defects in Bob's education--was exceptionallywell qualified for the task. Educated at Cambridge, where he had won adouble first; naturally studious, a great traveller, endowed with asingularly happy knack of investing the driest subject with quite anabsorbing interest, and a perfect master in the art of instructing, hesuperintended Bob's studies so effectively that the lad's progress waslittle short of marvellous. Not content with the two hours of dailytuition which had originally been proposed, Mr Eastlake frequentlyjoined the lad on the poop or in the waist for the first two or threehours of the first night-watch, when the weather happened to be fine andBob's services were not particularly required, and, promenading fore andaft with his pupil by his side, he was wont to launch into long andinteresting disquisitions upon such topics as were best calculated towiden Bob's sphere of knowledge and cultivate his intellect.
Nor was Captain Staunton any less successful in that portion of Bob'sstudies which he had undertaken to direct. Fortunately for our hero hisskipper was not one of those men whose acquaintance with navigationconsists solely in the blind knowledge that certain calculations ifcorrectly performed will afford certain information; Captain Stauntonhad studied nautical astronomy intelligently and thoroughly, he knew the_raison d'etre_ of every calculation in the various astronomicalproblems connected with the science of navigation, and was therefore ina position to explain clearly and intelligently to his pupil every stepwhich was necessary, as well in the simple as in the more abstruse anddifficult calculations.
Thus admirably circumstanced in the matter of instructors, and aided byhis own anxiety to improve, Bob made such steady and rapid progress thatby the time the ship rounded the Cape he could "work a lunar," solve aquadratic equation or any problem in the first two books of Euclid, andwrite an intelligently expressed, correctly spelt, and grammaticalletter, in addition to possessing a large store of knowledge on everydaysubjects. Nor was this all. The majority of the passengers, moved byCaptain Staunton's frequent references to Bob's exploit on the Gunfleet,
had taken quite a fancy to the lad, and conversed so frequently and sofreely with him that his _mauvais honte_ gradually disappeared, and hefound himself able to mingle with them with an ease and absence of self-consciousness which was as pleasing as it was novel to him.
Meanwhile the _Galatea_ sped rapidly and prosperously on her way. Thebreeze with which she had started lasted long enough to run her fairlyinto the north-east trades, and once in them the journey to the Line wasa short and pleasant one. Here a delay of three days occurred, duringwhich the ship had to contend with light baffling winds and calms,interspersed with violent thunder and rain squalls, the latter of whichwere taken advantage of to fill up the water-tanks. Then on again tothe southward, braced sharp up on the larboard tack, with the south-easttrade-wind blowing fresh enough to keep the royals stowed for thegreater part of the time; and then, light easterly breezes, just at thetime when they fully expected to fall in with strong westerly windsbefore which to run down their easting.
Here occurred their first check, and instead of being thankful that theyhad been so greatly favoured thus far, everybody of course beganforthwith to grumble. The passengers, perhaps, chafed under the delayquite as much as Captain Staunton, but their outward manifestations ofimpatience were confined for the most part to dissatisfied glances atthe hard cloudless blue sky to windward, as it met their gaze morningafter morning when they came on deck, to shrugs of the shoulderswhenever the subject happened to be mentioned, and to scornful,sarcastic, or despondent allusions to the proverbial longevity andobstinacy of easterly winds in general. Except Mr Forester Dale, andhe, I regret to say, made himself a perfect nuisance to everybody onboard by his snappishness and irascibility. The weather was "beastly,"the ship was "beastly," and his demeanour was such as to suggest to theother passengers the idea that he considered them also to be "beastly,"a suggestion which they very promptly resented by sending him toCoventry. That his metaphorical seclusion in that ancient city was notof the very strictest kind was entirely due to the fact that hispartner, Rex Fortescue, and the inimitable Brook wore on board. Rexbore the childish irritability of his senior partner with unparalleledgood-humour; his strongest protest being a mere, "Shut up, there's agood fellow, and let a man enjoy his book and his weed in peace for oncein a while." Factotum Brook attempted quite a different mode ofsoothing his superior. He demonstrated--to his own completesatisfaction if not to that of anybody else--that it was a physicalimpossibility for them to have anything _but_ easterly winds where theywere. But, he asserted, there was a good time coming; they had hadeasterly winds ever since they had started; this, by an unalterable lawof nature, had been gradually creating a vacuum away there in theeasterly quarter, which vacuum must now necessarily soon become soperfect that, by another unalterable law of nature, the wind would comecareering back from the westward with a force sufficient to more thanenable them to make up for all lost time.
To do Captain Staunton justice he left no means untried whereby to wileaway the time and render less oppressive the monotony of the voyage. Hesuggested the weekly publication of a newspaper in the saloon, andenergetically promoted and encouraged such sports and pastimes as arepracticable on board ship; _al fresco_ concerts on the poop, impromptudances, _tableaux-vivants_, charades, recitations, etcetera, for theevening; and deck-quoits, follow-my-leader, shooting at bottles,fishing, etcetera, during the day. By these means the murmurings anddissatisfaction were nipped in the bud, harmony and good-humourreturning and triumphantly maintaining their position for the remainderof the voyage. The newspaper was a great success, every incident in theleast out of the common being duly recorded therein. The editor was oneO'Reilly, an Irishman, who enjoyed the reputation of being one of themost successful barristers in New South Wales, to which colony he wasreturning after a short holiday trip "home." The paper was published inmanuscript, and consisted of twenty foolscap pages, which O'Reillyprided himself upon completely filling at every issue. Interestingfacts being for the most part very scarce commodities, fiction wasfreely indulged in, the contributors vieing with each other in theeffort to produce humorous advertisements, letters to the editor uponreal or imaginary grievances, and startling accounts of purelyfictitious occurrences.
In the meantime two of the passengers had discovered a species ofamusement quite out of the line of the captain's programme, and whichcaused that worthy seaman no small amount of anxiety and embarrassment.In a word, Rex Fortescue and Violet Dudley found in each other's societya solace from the ennui of the voyage which onlookers had every reasonto believe was of the most perfect kind. Such a condition of things wasalmost inevitable under the circumstances. There were four ladies onboard, and thirteen gentlemen passengers, of whom no less than nine werebachelors. Of the four ladies one, Mrs Staunton, was married andtherefore unapproachable. Miss Butler was an old maid, with a subduedexpression and manner ill calculated to arouse any feeling warmer thanrespectful esteem, so that there remained only Blanche and Violet, bothyoung, pretty, and agreeable, to act as recipients of all the ardentemotions of the bachelor mind. Although the art, science, or pastime--whichever you will--of love-making has many difficulties to contend withon board ship, in consequence of the lamentable lack of privacy whichprevails there, it is doubtful whether it ever flourishes so vigorouslyanywhere else. Even so was it on board the _Galatea_; Violet andBlanche being waited upon hand and foot and followed about the decksfrom early morn to dewy eve, each by her own phalanx of devotedadmirers. These attentions had at first been productive of nothing moreserious than amusement to their recipients; but gradually, verygradually, Violet Dudley had manifested a partiality for the quietunobtrusive courtesies and attentions of Rex Fortescue, which partialityat length became so clearly marked that, one after the other, the restof her admirers retired discomfited, and sought solace for theirdisappointment in the exciting sport of rifle shooting at empty bottlesdropped overboard and allowed to drift astern, or in such otheramusements as their tastes led them to favour. Blanche, however, stillkept her division of admirers in a state of feverish suspense,manifesting no partiality whatever for any one of them above another.Indeed she seemed to take greater pleasure in questioning Bob about hisformer career, and in listening to his quaint but graphic descriptionsof the curious incidents of fisher-life, than she did in the complimentsor conversation of any of her admirers, a circumstance which caused Bobto be greatly envied.
Whilst this was the state of things aft, matters were not all that theyshould be in the forecastle. The crew were a good enough set of men,and doubtless would have been all right under proper management, but,thanks to the surly and aggravating behaviour of Mr Carter, thestarboard watch, over which he ruled, was in a state of almost openmutiny. And yet so acute was the aggressor that for a long time he gavethe men no excuse for legitimate complaint; the utmost that could besaid against him being that he was, in the opinion of the men, undulyparticular as to the set and trim of the sails, and the superlativecleanliness of everything about the decks. This was all very wellduring the daytime, but when in the night-watches the men were hustledincessantly about the decks, taking a pull here, there, and everywhereat the halliards, sheets, and braces of the already fully distended andaccurately trimmed sails, only to be ordered a few minutes later to easeup the lee braces half an inch and take a pull upon the weather ones; oralternately stowing and setting the "flying kites" or light uppercanvas, they could not help seeing that these things were done less fromzeal and anxiety to make a quick passage than for the purpose ofindulging a spiteful and malicious temper.
At length a crisis arrived. The ship was at the time somewhere aboutthe latitude of the Cape; stretching to the southward and eastwardclose-hauled, with a fine steady breeze from east-north-east. It wasthe second mate's eight hours out that night, and although the weatherwas beautifully fine, with a clear sky, full moon, and steady breeze, hehad been indulging in his usual vagaries throughout the last two hoursof the first watch (he never attempted anything out of the common whenCaptain S
taunton or any of the passengers were on deck, as some of themgenerally were until midnight), and he began them again within a quarterof an hour of coming on deck at 4 a.m. The royals were set when he tookcharge of the deck, and these he had separately clewed up and furled, aswell as one or two of the smaller stay-sails. He allowed the men justtime enough to settle down comfortably, and then ordered the recentlystowed sails to be loosed and set again, which was done. A shortinterval passed, and then he had the royals stowed once more, andfinally he ordered them to be loosed and set again.
Not a man took the slightest notice of the order.
"Do you hear, there? Jump aloft, some of you, and loose the royals,"shouted Carter, thinking for a moment that he had failed to make himselfheard.
Still there was no response.
"You, Davis, away aloft and loose the fore-royal. Boyd, jump up andloose the main; and you, Nichols, up you go and loose the mizzen. Looklively now, or I'll rope's-end the last man down from aloft," exclaimedthe second mate, his passion rapidly rising as he found himself thustacitly opposed.
As the last words left his lips the watch came aft in a body, pausingjust forward of the main-mast.
"Look 'ee here, Mr Carter," said Boyd, a fine active willing youngfellow, stepping a pace or two in front of his messmates, "we thinks asthem there r'yals 'll do well enough as they am for the rest of thewatch. They was set when we come 'pon deck, and that wouldn't do, youhad 'em stowed. Then you warn't satisfied with 'em so, and you had 'emset. _That_ wouldn't do, so you had 'em stowed again; and stowed they_will_ be for the rest of the watch, as far as I'm concarned. Thenight's fine, and the breeze as steady as a breeze can be, and the oldbarkie 'd carry r'yals and skys'ls too for the matter o' that, but ifthey was set we should have to stow 'em again five minutes a'terwards;so let 'em be, say I."
A low murmur of assent from the rest of the watch gave the second mateto understand that these were their sentiments also upon the subject.
The foolish fellow at once allowed his temper to get the mastery of him.
"Oh! _that's_ what you say, is it, my fine fellows? Very good; we'llsoon see whether, when I give an order, I am to be obeyed or not," hehissed through his clenched teeth.
Saying which he stepped hastily to the door of his cabin, which wassituated on deck in the after house, entered, and in a few momentsreappeared with a revolver in each hand.
"_Now_," he exclaimed, planting himself midway between the poop and themain-mast, "let me see the man who will dare to disobey me. I'll shoothim like a dog. Boyd, go aloft and loose the main-royal," pointing oneof the revolvers full at him.
"I refuse," exclaimed the seaman. "I demand to be taken beforeCaptain--"
A flash, a sharp report, and the man staggered backwards and fell to thedeck, while a crimson stain appeared and rapidly broadened on the breastof his check shirt.
Two of his comrades instantly raised the wounded man and bore himforward; the remainder rushed with a shout upon the second mate anddisarmed him, though not before he had fired again and sent a bulletthrough the left arm of one of his assailants.
The men were still struggling with the second mate when a figure sprangup through the companion, closely followed by a second, and CaptainStaunton's voice was heard exclaiming--
"Good heavens! Mr Carter, what is the meaning of this? Back men;back, for your lives. How dare you raise your hands against one of yourofficers?"
The men had by this time wrenched the pistols out of Carter's hands, andthey at once fell back and left him as Captain Staunton and Mr Bowlesadvanced to his rescue.
The new-comers placed themselves promptly one on each side of the secondmate, and then the two parties stood staring somewhat blankly at eachother for something like a minute.
"Well, Mr Carter," at last exclaimed Captain Staunton, "have younothing to say by way of explanation of this extraordinary scene? Whatdoes it mean?"
"Mutiny, sir; that and nothing less," gasped Carter, whose passionalmost deprived him of speech. "I thank you, sir, and you too, MrBowles, for coming to my rescue; but for that I should have been a deadman by this time."
"Oh, no, you wouldn't, Mr Carter," exclaimed one of the men. "We ain'tmurderers; and we shouldn't ha' touched you if you hadn't touched usfirst."
"That will do," exclaimed Captain Staunton. "If any of you haveanything to say you shall have an opportunity of saying it in due time;at present I wish to hear what Mr Carter has to say," turninginquiringly once more toward that individual.
Thus pressed, Carter related his version of the story, which was to theeffect that the men had refused to obey orders, and had come aft in somenacing a manner that in self-defence he had been compelled to armhimself; and further, that hoping to check the mutiny in the bud, he hadshot down the "ringleader."
"So that is the explanation of the shots which awoke me," exclaimedCaptain Staunton. "And where is the wounded man?"
"In his bunk, sir; bleeding like a stuck pig," replied one of the men,resorting to simile to aid his description, as is the wont of seafaringmen generally.
"_Phew_!" whistled the skipper. "This is serious. Run, Bowles, androuse out the doctor at once, if you please."
Mr Bowles sped to the doctor's cabin, and found that individual already"roused out," with an open case of surgical instruments on the table,and a drawer open, from which he was hastily selecting lint, bandages,etcetera; the medico having been awakened by the first pistol-shot, and,like a sensible man, bestirring himself at once in preparation for therepair of damages, without waiting to learn first whether there _were_any damages to repair or not.
"Well, Bowles," he exclaimed, as the worthy "chief" made his appearance,"you want me, eh? What's the nature of the case?"
"A man shot," briefly replied Mr Bowles.
"Just so; heard the shots. Where is the seat of the injury? Don'tknow? Well, never mind, we'll soon find out. Let me see--tourniquet--probe--splints--lint--bandage--um--um--yes; just carry these for me,Bowles, there's a good fellow, and lead the way."
So saying the worthy man put a quantity of splints, etcetera, into MrBowles' hands, and, gathering up the rest of his chattels, followed themate to the forecastle, where he at once busied himself in ascertainingthe extent of and finally dressing poor Boyd's injury.
In the meantime Captain Staunton, assisted by Mr Bowles, who hadspeedily rejoined him, had been holding a sort of court of inquiry intothe case; and after much skilful interrogation, and the giving of a mostpatient hearing to the statement of each member of the watch, he hadsucceeded in arriving at a very near approach to the actual truth of thematter.
"This," he said, "is clearly a case wherein both parties have beengravely in fault. I am compelled in justice to admit that you," turningto the members of the watch, "appear to have received great provocation,inasmuch as there can be no doubt that you have been greatly harassed byMr Carter's habit of unnecessarily interfering with the disposition ofthe canvas set on the ship. I have, indeed, myself noticed this, myattention often having been arrested by the sounds of making andshortening sail during the night-watches, when you all doubtless thoughtme fast asleep in my berth; and I have had it on my mind for some timepast to speak to Mr Carter on the subject; I should have done so longago but for my great repugnance to interfere with my officers exceptupon the most urgent grounds. I confess I had no idea that theprovocation had been going on for so long a time; the master of a ship,like other mortals, requires sleep; and doubtless many things are saidand done whilst he is taking his rest of which he can know nothingunless they are brought to his notice by others. It was thereforemanifestly your duty, in justice to me as well as in obedience to thelaw, to make complaint to me of any grievances of which you may haveconsidered yourselves the victims; and that, instead of doing so, youtook it upon yourselves to resent your grievances by refusing obedienceto the orders of your officer, constitutes your offence--an offencewhich, in my opinion, has been sufficiently punished by the woundsinflicted upon two of yo
ur number. You have satisfied me that yourlapse of duty was in reality a matter strictly between yourselves andthe second officer, and in no wise a defiance of my authority, or Isuppose I need scarcely say I should not take this lenient view of yourconduct. As for you, Mr Carter," the skipper resumed after a pause,"you have placed me in the very unpleasant position of being compelledto suspend you from duty until the arrival of the ship at Sydney. Youhave proved yourself incompetent to command a watch with that tact andmoderation which is so essential to the safety of a ship and the comfortof those on board; and, led away by your heat of temper, you havehastily and unnecessarily resorted to measures of extreme violence,which might, had the men been of a similar temper, have led to adreadful disaster. You may retire to your cabin, sir. Mr Bowles, dome the favour to call Mr Dashwood."
Young Dashwood was found sitting on his chest, dressed and ready for anyemergency, the entire occupants of the ship being by this time on the_qui vive_, and he was therefore in the presence of the skipper within aminute of the mention of his name. To him Captain Staunton at oncedelegated the command of the starboard watch, saying at the same time afew words expressive of confidence in his prudence and seamanship.
"One word more, men," said the skipper, again addressing the watch. "Ihave suspended Mr Carter not because I regard you as in the _right_, oras in any way justified in your behaviour, but because he was manifestly_wrong_. I must therefore very earnestly caution you, one and all,against again refusing obedience to any commands issued by yourofficers. If those commands are such as to constitute a substantialgrievance, or if they should by any chance be such as to manifestlyimperil the safety of the ship or the lives of any of those on board, Iam always to be found, and the matter must at once be referred to me. Ishall always be ready to protect you from tyranny or intemperatetreatment; but remember from this time forward there must be nothingeven remotely resembling insubordination. Now, go back to your duty."
The men walked quietly away forward, and Captain Staunton, accompaniedby Mr Bowles, retired below to make an immediate entry of theoccurrence in the official log-book.
The occupants of the saloon were naturally greatly exercised by theevent, which formed the staple of conversation next day. It wasinteresting to observe the way in which the subject was regarded by thevarious members of the little community. O'Reilly, the editor of the"Galatea Free Press," was wild with excitement at contemplation of thenarrow escape they had had from a mutiny and its attendant fight; and heexhibited a curious study of mingled irritation and satisfaction--ofirritation that the fight had not come off, and of satisfaction that hehad not been compelled to take up arms against any of the forecastlehands, every one of whom he regarded in his free-hearted way as apersonal friend, and with every one of whom he was a prime favourite.
The ladies, who really understood nothing whatever of the merits of thecase, with that unerring instinct which invariably leads them to a rightconclusion, sided unanimously with the seamen; while a few of the moretimid among the male passengers regarded Carter as a sort of hero-martyr, Mr Dale being especially loud and indiscreet in hisdenunciations of the recklessness manifested in "encouraging themutinous rascals in their defiance of authority."
"It will end," he dismally prophesied, "in our all being murdered in ourbeds some night. Oh, dear! I wish I had never come to sea." Brook andone or two more, though they said little, went about the ship for somefew days afterwards in evident perturbation of mind, though, to do themjustice, had they been _obliged_ they would have doubtless fought andfought well. Rex Fortescue, perhaps, took matters the most coolly ofany. He not only went himself forward as usual to hear the yarn-spinning and smoke his cigar on the forecastle during the dog-watches,but he also took Violet with him (he having noticed long before that thepresence of a lady was always sufficient to ensure the strictest decorumon the part of the men); thus showing the crew, as clearly as he could,that he at least had no doubt of their loyalty.
Carter's suspension from duty removed the only discordant element whichhad ever revealed itself on board, as far as the crew of the ship wereconcerned; and thenceforward matters went smoothly enough on board the_Galatea_ for the remainder of the passage, which proved to be a rapidone, notwithstanding the delay experienced in rounding the Cape. It wasalso an uneventful one--the foregoing occurrence excepted. Nothingfurther need therefore be said respecting it, than that in good time theship safely arrived in Sydney's noble harbour, and, landing herpassengers, began forthwith the humdrum operation of discharging cargo.
The Pirate Island: A Story of the South Pacific Page 4
