In consequence of the unfavourable state of the wind, the ship remained at anchor in the roads. The officers employed this interval in making further preparations, as well as in amusing themselves in the best way they could, some in wandering along the sandy beach, others in sauntering about the streets, and not a few in rambling through the country in various directions, exploring the beauties of the island.
On the morning of the 25th, the wind coming round to N.E., signal was immediately made, when with hasty steps we all repaired to the boats lying at the sea-beach, ready to convey us on board. In a little time the embarkation was completed, and about noon we were under way, standing down channel with a lively breeze, and a fine clear day. The bustle and commotion, incident to the beginning of a long passage, the stowing away of animated and inanimate lumber, with a train of other preparatory measures, were attended with the confusion and noise that generally takes place on such occasions, and it was not until we had got pretty well out to sea that matters subsided into something like good order and regularity.
The cabin was not much better than those narrow prisons usually are in the West India Merchantmen, but afforded tolerable head room to those who were not descended from a race of giants. The berths, or cupboard looking dens, intended to do the duty of sleeping places, on either side, were hammered up in a very rude style, without regard to comfort or convenience, presenting nothing whatever to allure to peaceful slumber the unfortunate being who was doomed to be incarcerated in them. Their odour was not exactly of a kind to rival that of the rose; such as they were, however, we had no alternative; a hammock suspended from the ceiling of the cabin would of two evils have been by far the least.
The officers were all a cheerful and good tempered set of men, each resolved to contribute his mite to the general stock of harmony; and thus assist to lessen the miseries that form unavoidably part and parcel of a shipboard life. Politely speaking, the fair ladies ought to have been first alluded to. Those whom we were so fortunate as to have for our companions, were well disposed to lend their aid in promoting whatever might tend to relieve the tiresome voyage. We could not therefore fail of being as happy as mortals could expect, under all the circumstances.
While passing the Needles, the pilot took his leave, burthened with numerous epistles and billet doux, to wives and sweethearts. We gave many a longing lingering look to his weather-beaten skiff, as it glided swiftly to the shore, viewing it as the last connecting link of that chain which bound us to Old England; but now alas! to be severed, while we remained under mournful feelings, which the bright aspect of surrounding things could hardly dissipate.
It was beautiful to behold, on that sunny day, the prospect on either side, whether we looked to the green hills of the Isle of Wight, or on the rich and varied scenery along the coasts of Hants and Dorset. Sailing at the rate of six or seven knots, we rapidly bounded through the water, and, bearing away to the south-east, in a few hours we cleared the English Channel.
By this time we began to experience certain very uncomfortable qualms, felt more or less by landsmen and sailors on their first invasion of the ocean. Gay and jocund looks were speedily changed into those of a more sickly character, the unpitied and unpitying malady, as the sea got rough, spreading its influence around. As for the griffins, or young adventurers, they vanished in silence to the lower regions, betaking themselves to their proper dens, where they lay perdue, meditating on their hapless fate; and, in a situation bordering on despair, were indifferent as to whether they went to the bottom of the deep, or were dismissed from the world by a shorter road. It is wonderful how soon the ardour of even the most ambitious hero is cooled by a bout of sea-sickness; the frame and spirit are paralysed, and all the energies of mind and body are lying prostrate, and he cares not a farthing for himself, or any human being. The worst of it is, no one has compassion on the wretched victim, and though he may seem absolutely in a dying state, the healthy and older hands only laugh or grin at his distress; shaking their contented sides, while they cruelly prescribe for the unhappy patient a fat mutton chop, or a wedge of greasy bacon. For the smallest spot of solid earth upon which to set one's foot, even though it were in a barren wilderness, the wealth of India would with gladness be exchanged, and, in bitterness of heart, the meanest reptile that ever crawled upon the surface of dry land becomes an object of envy.
Our gallant bark still ploughed her way through the restless and sparkling waters, bearing the faint and the light-hearted, the joyful together with the sad, onward to the warm and renovating atmosphere of southern regions. Even when our calamities were at their worst, there was always something to keep us from sinking into total despondency. Among other resources against care and ennui, there was the amusing society of a gentleman, named Charles, our worthy surgeon, a stout, broad shouldered Milesian. He was the drollest fellow imaginable, of such infinite humour that he not only was the means of banishing the blue devils from those who were in health, but of raising the spirits of the sick and down-cast. In short he was a genius that could keep the table in a roar.
We could not by any means get on without the Doctor, who, by his comicalities and racy mirth, has restored more patients than hundreds of his drenching brotherhood have done, by all their quackery, nostrums, pills and boluses. This jolly son of Esculapius had all the ready wit and quaint originality of his countrymen. By his songs, anecdotes and stories, the tedium of many a wintry night upon the deck was pleasantly beguiled. These were indeed sufficient to dispel the grievous thoughts of even the most miserable ascetic that ever pined away his days in cell or hermitage. Poor Charles ended his career in Jamaica, where he fell a victim to the yellow fever, and his brother officers were thus deprived of a social companion, and society of a good-natured and estimable member.
Biscay, with all its stormy attributes, now stared us wildly in the face, and shortly we were rolling on its waves, with nothing to relieve the prospect. We, fortunately, escaped this time any very tempestuous weather, being reminded only now and then, by sundry awful lurches, (to the total overthrow of tables and contents), that we were still in blustrous latitudes, and that we could not hope to cross this noted bay without some little tossing, and a brush or two from one of those gales for which it has so long been famed. Ground and lofty tumbling, as well as other gymnastics, sufficient to educate the novice for a trial of skill in that branch of science, holding on by ropes, a somerset or two, intermingled with a game at all fours, were consequently, in their turn, the most general occupations of the landsmen; while, at the dinner table, the farce that was occasionally exhibited was quite as good as anything that Mathews could perform, and could not fail to excite the risible faculties of a stoic.