Upon one dish, even although their character was
widely different; that was looked upon as a matter of no import,
which was also the case as to whether the things came to table hot
or cold.
On one occasion, during tea, the head cook was in unusually good
humour, and remarked, "I spare no possible pains to provide for you.
I hope you want for nothing." Two of the passengers, Englishmen,
replied, "No, that's true!" The third, who was a Portuguese, did
not understand the importance of the assertion. As a native of
Germany, not possessing the patriotic feeling of an English subject
in the matter, I should have replied very differently had I not been
a women, and if, by so replying, I could have effected a change for
the better.
The only light we had was from a piece of tallow candle, that often
went out by eight o'clock. We were then under the necessity of
sitting in the dark or going to bed.
In the morning the cabin served as a barber's shop, and in the
afternoon as a dormitory, where the cooks and servants, who were
half dead with sleep, used to come and slumber on the benches.
In order to render us still more comfortable, one of the officers
pitched upon our cabin as quarters for two young puppies, who did
nothing but keep up one continued howl; he would not have dared to
put them in the sailors' cabin, because the latter would have kicked
them out without farther ceremony.
