Page:Letters from the Battle-fields of Paraguay (1870).djvu/112



82 FROM RIO DE JANEIRO TO MONTE VIDEO.

be kept waiting two days at Monte Video ? Lastly, why should the mail-bags be shipped from Buenos Aires in a sailing-boatj often delaying Arno two hours, and demanding full speed with an increased expenditure of coal ! Arrange- ments for embarking and disembarking upon the Platine shores are imperfect all, but the Royal Mail simply makes none. New and immense sources of profit, such as touch- ing at Santos in S. Paulo, have been proposed even by myself. During the affair of Federals versus Confederates, when the Royal Mail had virtually a monopoly of transport, a noble service might have been organized had they not preferred distributing bonuses. My proposals were re- jected, and the profits were made over to the French and to a rival line, the '^'^ Astronomicals,^^ by the incapacity of certain superannuateds, who have done nothing but mangle the fair proportions of the company. Yet, when the last yearns West Indian typhoon lost four steamers, the Royal Mail, which has on board every ship begging-boxes for widows and orphans, could not afford to pay pensions, and was compelled to pass round the ignoble hat. Beware O ex-Great Company, and bestir thyself! We will not be made to go backwards. There is a Lamport and Holt â€” although that coach is even slower â€” there is a Tait^s London line, and, to say nothing of the French, Italians, and Belgians, there are fine brand-new Pacific steamers through Magellan Strait, which may presently claim a fat slice from the Mail contract.

You must not think that in making these remarks, my object is to grumble or to blame : it is rather to suggest the mode of preventing discontent. Personally I â€” let us say we â€” have ever met with the most kindly treatment on board the many vessels of the Royal Mail that conveyed us. It is still the line which will be preferred by families, and where the unprotected one is safe from the attentions