Page:The founding of South Australia.djvu/191

, not fewer than one hundred porpoises and bottle-nosed whales around the ship at the same time, some of which were 20 feet long &hellip;

"August 12th.—I was always averse to allowing labouring emigrants spirits, on board ship, and am now more than ever convinced that the practice is most injudicious. Very few indeed ever think of helping the sailors by pulling at a rope, or of rendering any other assistance—on the contrary, they are generally to be seen rolling on casks, or hen coops, enjoying (a new thing for them) idleness, with unusually full meals; then they become unhealthy, and the allowance of spirits makes them vicious. The women, many of whom have perhaps very seldom tasted rum before, and, if so, in small quantities, now drinking largely, become quarrelsome, and the causes of quarrel amongst the weak emigrants.

"From these considerations, carried out practically as I have seen in several instances, I am thoroughly convinced that no ship, containing a large number of poor persons, can be other than an arena for discord while spirits are served out as an article of rations, or can be obtained, except in particular cases, by the authority of the surgeon.

"August 15th.—Several dolphins have been sporting about the ship to-day, but we have not succeeded in taking any. One of my Cashmere kids died. We have also, I fear, lost the beautiful heliotrope which my mother so kindly left as a last gift on board the ship to H. It has had water regularly, but whether it is the sea air, or the absence of the sun (for it could not be hung on deck), which has killed it I know not; nevertheless, the stump, cut down as it is, shall be still a cabin passenger, in the hope that the climate of Australia may revivify any spark of life which may yet be at the root. The mignonette before withering, providently gave its seed, and the third little pot of treasure, the musk plant, still lives, but in a very precarious state;