Page:Autobiography of Rear Admiral Charles Wilkes.djvu/52

26 withdrew it. My purse was filled. The next turnup the colour I won on was loser and I had escaped. The vow I had made came forcibly to my mind and I turned and left the place and from that time I have never gambled since. My losses had been made good and indeed I was a most relieved and happy boy. My temperment was not such as to withstand the temptation and I feel satisfied had I again entered the list I should have been strongly addicted to games of chance & betting money. I left Paris a few days after and rejoiced that I had been saved from the Vice I had no knowledge of, but always repudiated by my father as beneath a gentleman and which, sooner or later, destroys all the high & noble feelings of manhood.

I had heard that the Hibernia was to sail positively three days before I determined to leave Paris, and I was satisfied she would have gone. What was my surprise, on my arrival, to find she had been delayed by head winds and the Captain was making all inquiries about me. The ship was just ready to depart when I made my appearance, dressed in my sailor's garb. There was a general shout on board by the crew when they saw me, of "sail ahoy." The Captain said not a word to me and I went to my duty as though nothing had taken place. The Mate, Dyson, was away and another in his place. We sailed that same afternoon with several passengers and all seemed well, but it was not to last long and I was to suffer by being well "hazed" around. Contrary winds and little progress soon ruffled the Captain's temper and with it all things on board, and this extended to the passengers.

Unfortunately, the little Malay steward took sick and there was no one to fill his place. The passengers had had their own way as to the edibles & the stores rapidly diminished and the meals were irregular and badly cooked, complaints arose & the irritation on the part of the passengers gave vent & altercations between them and the Captain were frequent. The fare was not what had been promised, there was no pain frais tout les jours as had been advertised, & the coffee & tea was execrable. The poor little Malay was thought to be playing old soldier and, instead of being treated as a sick person, was well flogged in his berth, but he was really sick and unable to do duty. I was therefore taken as Cabin boy to act in his stead. The passengers had drawn up a program of fare for each day for the Malay, which he endeavored to carry out. Our passage was prolonged and with boisterous head winds we made little way, and it became evident that the Cabin Stores would run short. The Captain, therefore, put us on an allowance & I was instructed not to exceed it. It was a new employment for me to wait upon a surly set of passengers, as little like gentlemen as could well be imagined, and a meal scarcely passed without innuendoes and remarks for the Captain, who retorted in high words and frequently near coming to blows. I had taken a great aversion to three or four of them from Boston, real Yankees, and would not permit them to order me and show their ill temper on me, and complained to the Captain, who gave orders they were to have nothing to do with me and forbid them to order anything for meals, he alone would do it.