If A
Person Asked My Advice, Before Undertaking A Long Voyage,
My Answer Would Depend Upon His Possessing A Decided Taste
For Some Branch Of Knowledge, Which Could By This Means Be
Advanced.
No doubt it is a high satisfaction to behold various
countries and the many races of mankind, but the pleasures
gained at the time do not counterbalance the evils.
It is
necessary to look forward to a harvest, however distant
that may be, when some fruit will be reaped, some good
effected.
Many of the losses which must be experienced are obvious;
such as that of the society of every old friend, and of the
sight of those places with which every dearest remembrance
is so intimately connected. These losses, however, are at
the time partly relieved by the exhaustless delight of
anticipating the long wished-for day of return. If, as poets
say, life is a dream, I am sure in a voyage these are the
visions which best serve to pass away the long night. Other
losses, although not at first felt, tell heavily after a period:
these are the want of room, of seclusion, of rest; the jading
feeling of constant hurry; the privation of small luxuries, the
loss of domestic society and even of music and the other
pleasures of imagination. When such trifles are mentioned, it is
evident that the real grievances, excepting from accidents, of
a sea-life are at an end. The short space of sixty years has
made an astonishing difference in the facility of distant
navigation. Even in the time of Cook, a man who left
his fireside for such expeditions underwent severe privations.
A yacht now, with every luxury of life, can circumnavigate
the globe. Besides the vast improvements in ships and
naval resources, the whole western shores of America are
thrown open, and Australia has become the capital of a
rising continent. How different are the circumstances to a
man shipwrecked at the present day in the Pacific, to what
they were in the time of Cook! Since his voyage a hemisphere
has been added to the civilized world.
If a person suffer much from sea-sickness, let him weigh
it heavily in the balance. I speak from experience: it is no
trifling evil, cured in a week. If, on the other hand, he take
pleasure in naval tactics, he will assuredly have full scope
for his taste. But it must be borne in mind, how large a
proportion of the time, during a long voyage, is spent on
the water, as compared with the days in harbour. And what
are the boasted glories of the illimitable ocean. A tedious
waste, a desert of water, as the Arabian calls it. No doubt
there are some delightful scenes. A moonlight night, with
the clear heavens and the dark glittering sea, and the white
sails filled by the soft air of a gently blowing trade-wind, a
dead calm, with the heaving surface polished like a mirror,
and all still except the occasional flapping of the canvas.
It is well once to behold a squall with its rising arch and
coming fury, or the heavy gale of wind and mountainous
waves.
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