it and reef topsails cannot welcome it with any pleasure.



CHAPTER II



Life on Board--Calm--Boat Lowered--Snares and Traps--Land--Driven off
coast--Enter Port Lyttelton--Requisites for a Sea Voyage--Spirit of
Adventure aroused.

Before continuing the narrative of my voyage, I must turn to other
topics and give you some account of my life on board. My time has
passed very pleasantly: I have read a good deal; I have nearly finished
Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, am studying Liebig's
Agricultural Chemistry, and learning the concertina on the instrument of
one of my fellow-passengers. Besides this, I have had the getting up
and management of our choir. We practise three or four times a week; we
chant the Venite, Glorias, and Te Deums, and sing one hymn. I have two
basses, two tenors, one alto, and lots of girls, and the singing
certainly is better than you would hear in nine country places out of
ten. I have been glad by this means to form the acquaintance of many of
the poorer passengers. My health has been very good all the voyage: I
have not had a day's sea-sickness. The provisions are not very first-
rate, and the day after to-morrow, being Christmas Day, we shall sigh
for the roast beef of Old England, as our dinner will be somewhat of the
meagrest. Never mind! On the whole I cannot see reason to find any
great fault. We have a good ship, a good captain, and victuals
sufficient in quantity. Everyone but myself abuses the owners like pick