136 degrees 31
minutes E. - Early this morning one of the sailors died, and before noon
the last services of the Church of England were read over his body; this
was the first and only death that occurred during our long passage, and
the solemnity of committing his last remains to their watery grave cast a
saddening influence over the most thoughtless. I shall never forget the
moment when the sewn-up hammock, with a gaily coloured flag wrapped round
it, was launched into the deep; those who can witness with indifference a
funeral on land, would, I think, find it impossible to resist the
thrilling awe inspired by such an event at sea.
FRIDAY, 20, lat. 38 degrees 57 minutes S., long. 140 degrees 5 minutes
E. - Sighted Moonlight Head, the next day Cape Otway; and in the afternoon
of Sunday, the 22nd, we entered the Heads, and our pilot came on board. He
was a smart, active fellow, and immediately anchored us within the bay
(a heavy gale brewing); and then, after having done colonial justice to a
substantial dinner, he edified us with the last Melbourne news. "Not a
spare room or bed to be had - no living at all under a pound a-day -
every one with ten fingers making ten to twenty pounds a-week." "Then
of course no one goes to the diggings?" "Oh, that pays better still -
the gold obliged to be quarried - a pound weight of no value." The
excitement that evening can scarcely be imagined, but it somewhat
abated next morning on his telling us to diminish his accounts some 200
per cent.
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