“Perhaps not, that may be the reason; but we hate them.”
6th.—Two miles above Calcutta:—the day was fine, the wind very heavy, but favourable: the view of the shipping beautiful; I enjoyed it until I remembered my crew were up-country men, from Hurdwar, who had never seen the sea, and knew not the force of the tides. We drifted with fearful velocity through the shipping; they threw the anchor overboard, but it would not hold; and away we went, our great unwieldy boat striking first one ship then another; at length a gentleman, seeing our danger as we were passing his pinnace, threw a rope on board, which the men seized, and having fastened it, brought up the vessel. All this time I was on deck, under a burning sun, and we did not anchor until 12 at noon; consequently, that night I was very ill, the beating in my head fearfully painful, and I fainted away three times; but it was of no consequence, I was in the hands of a kind friend, and soon recovered.
9th.—The ships lie close to the drive near the Fort, and visiting them is amusement for a morning. I went on board the “Earl of Hardwicke,”—she could not accommodate me; thence I proceeded to the “Madagascar,” and took one of the lower stern cabins for myself, for which I was to give 2500 rupees; and a smaller cabin, at 1300 rupees, for my friend’s three children, who were to accompany me to England. At the same time I engaged an European woman to attend upon me and the young ones. Going to sea is the only chance for the poor boys, after the severe fever they had on the river, from the effects of which they are still suffering.
The larboard stern cabin suits me remarkably well; it is very spacious, sufficient to contain a number of curiosities; and before the windows I have arranged a complete forest of the horns of the buffalo, the stag, and the antelope.
20th.—A steamer towed the “Madagascar” down the river, and the pilot quitted us on the 22nd, from which moment we reckoned the voyage actually commenced; it is not counted from Calcutta, but from the Sandheads, when the pilot gives over the vessel to the captain, and takes his departure. Suddu Khān, my old khansaman, who had accompanied me thus far, now returned with the pilot: the old man must have been half-starved, he would eat nothing on board but a little parched grain, and slept outside my cabin-door; he is an excellent servant, and says he will take the greatest care of the sāhib until my return.
I suffered severely at the Sandheads from mal de mer, on account of the heavy ground-swell; perhaps no illness is more distressing,—to complain is useless, and only excites laughter; no concern on the subject is ever felt or expressed. Why is blind man’s buff like sympathy[38]?
Let no one be tempted to take a lower stern cabin; mine was one of the largest and best, with three windows and two ports; nevertheless it was very hot, the wind could not reach it; it was much less comfortable than a smaller cabin would have been on the poop.
30th.—Very little wind in the early morning; during the day a dead calm,—very hot and oppressive. How a calm tries the temper! Give me any squall you please, but spare me a calm.
31st.—The ship rolling and pitching most unmercifully; there is scarcely wind enough to move her; she lies rolling and pitching as if she would send her masts overboard; thermometer 87°—the heat is most distressing,—no wind: caught a shark and a sucking fish.
Feb. 1st.—Thermometer 87°, the heat is distressing: a return voyage is much hotter than one from England. Captain Walker is very attentive to his passengers; he keeps an excellent table, and every thing is done to render them comfortable. We have sixty invalids on board,—wretched-looking men; one of them, when the ship was going seven knots an hour, threw himself overboard; a rope was thrown out, to which he clung, and they drew him in again; he came up sober enough, which it was supposed he was not when he jumped overboard. Fortunate was it for the man that the voracious shark we afterwards caught, whose interior was full of bones, did not make his acquaintance in the water.