Of Course,
No Attention Was Paid To The Inequalities Of The Surface, And I
Endeavoured, By Folding My Fur Cloak
And a thick dressing-gown
under my sheet, to render this miserable apology for a bed tenable.
Hitherto, our berth-
Places in the Government-steamers had been very
comfortable; though small, they answered the purpose of sleeping and
of washing, while the larger cabin into which they opened, and which
was set apart for the ladies, enabled us all to complete our toilets
without inconvenience. A sail had been hung before the door by way of
curtain, but the heat was still difficult to bear, and we found that
we had adventured upon the Red Sea at least a month too soon. The next
morning, the captain, hearing that I had, as might have been
expected, passed a wretched night, kindly sent his cot for my future
accommodation; after the second night, however, the servants thinking
it too much trouble to attend to it properly, the ropes gave way, and
it came down. The cabin being much too small to allow it to remain
hanging all day, I at first trusted to the servants to put it up at
night; but, after this accident, and finding them to be incorrigibly
stupid, lazy, and disobliging, I contented myself with placing the cot
upon two portmanteaus, and thus forming a bed-place. Subsequently, one
of the passengers having kindly adjusted the ropes, Miss E. and myself
contrived to sling it; a fatiguing operation, which added much to the
discomforts of the voyage.
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