Page:My Life in Two Hemispheres, volume 2.djvu/148

 CHAPTER II

MY RECEPTION IN THE NEW COUNTRY

was no mail service to Australia in 1855, and after careful inquiry I took my passage in the Ocean Chief, a vessel of the Black Ball Line.

The captain was a frank and friendly Nova Scotian of Irish descent, and I speedily saw that we were destined to get on comfortably. His yarns were racy; one of them still makes me smile when it recurs to my memory. A skipper of his acquaintance entered a complaint in the log-book against one of his officers. "I regret to state (so it ran) that during the greater part of this day the first mate has been intoxicated and disorderly." Some days later the first mate made an entry in the log. "I am rejoiced to be able to state that during this entire day the captain has been sober, and his instructions for sailing the brig were quite intelligible." Among my shipmates was Wilson Gray, who had sold his 130