We afterwards learned on shore
that the local government had already surveyed and fixed a place for
two leading lights. The reason why no health officers came off to us
this morning was probably that, small-pox and cholera both being
prevalent in the town, they thought that the fewer questions they
asked, and the less they saw of incoming vessels, the better.
_Friday, March 23rd_.--A broiling day, everybody panting, parrots and
parrakeets dying. We passed a large barque with every sail set,
although it was a flat calm, which made us rejoice in the possession
of steam-power. Several people on board are very unwell, and the
engineer is really ill. It is depressing to speculate what would
become of us if anything went wrong in the engine-room department, and
if we should be reduced to sail-power alone in this region of
calmness. At last even I know what it is to be too hot, and am quite
knocked up with my short experience.
[Illustration: How the Journal was written]
_Saturday, March 24th_.--Another flat calm. The after-forecastle,
having been battened down and fumigated for the last seventy-two
hours, was to-day opened, and its contents brought up on deck, some to
be thrown overboard, and others to be washed with carbolic acid. I
never saw such quantities of things as were turned out; they covered
the whole deck, and it seemed as if their cubic capacity must be far
greater than that of the place in which they had been stowed.
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