suspicion, in fact, seemed to pervade our quarters, making things
already uncomfortable enough, still more so. Now, however, they
fraternized with us, and in a variety of uncouth ways made havoc
of the English tongue, as they tried to impress us with the
beauty, fertility and general incomparability of their beloved
Cape Verds. Of the eleven white men besides myself in the
forecastle, there were a middle-aged German baker, who had bolted
from Buffalo; two Hungarians, who looked like noblemen disguised
--in dirt; two slab-sided Yankees of about 22 from farms in
Vermont; a drayman from New York; a French Canadian from the
neighbourhood of Quebec; two Italians from Genoa; and two
nondescripts that I never found out the origin of. Imagine,
then, the babel of sound, and think--but no, it is impossible to
think, what sort of a jargon was compounded of all these varying
elements of language.

One fortunate thing, there was peace below. Indeed, the spirit
seemed completely taken out of all of them, and by some devilish
ingenuity the afterguard had been able to sow distrust between
them all, while treating them like dogs, so that the miseries of
their life were never openly discussed. My position among them
gave me at times some uneasiness. Though I tried to be helpful
to all, and was full of sympathy for their undeserved sufferings,
I could not but feel that they would have been more than human
had they not envied me my immunity from the kicks and blows they
all shared so impartially. However, there was no help for it, so
I went on as cheerily as I could.

A peculiarity of all these vessels, as I afterwards learned, was
that no stated allowance of anything was made. Even the water