Now we do not accuse you, my dear, of encouraging these improprieties, but we do not think you are prompt enough in repelling them. Allow me to repeat again, my dear sister, we do not attribute thes liberties to any forwardness on your part, but we do attribute it to your want of experience; and as you are, if your life is spared, soon to become the wife of an excellent minister of Christ, the requirement that you should be circumspect in your life and conversation, is incumbent on you now." Philomela had been weeping audibly for some moments. She now ceased weeping, and began her defence, which was, that after her recovery from sea-sickness, the captain would, in a fatherly manner, take her arm and walk with her until she was tired.
She would then go below and rest herself. The captain would usually follow and take his seat beside her, and at times he had put his arm round her neck, which she of course, immediately removed. " And yet," she continued, " I looked upon it as a parental freedom • not for a moment did I suppose he had any improper intentions, but the next time he shows any freedom towards me, I shall most assuredly resent it." The conversation ended here, as it was necessary to ge.t a pull of the spanker sheet, which disturbed the conference. And it now came out that the captain one afternoon, when smoking below, while Miss Thurston was engaged in sewing, advanced towards her, and blew the smoke in her face.
She reproached him for his Impudence, not not only for this un gentlemanly act, but also, of former attempts of freedom, quite unbecoming a captain of a passenger ship, and also of a married man. This the captain construed into insult, and ordered her into her state-room, and not to come out without his permission. She had been shut up for some time in this suffocating weather, and begged that some means might be adopted by which she could get fresh air. The captain asked me if an air port could be cut through the ship-side without injury to the ship. I answered yes; and was ordered to do it. I hung; a stage over the quarter, and cut a hole through.
And as it was the windward side, when the breeze found its way into the state room, she put her head close to the port, and exclaimed, " Oh, how refreshing." I spoke a few words to her through the opening. The captain, hearing the conversation, leaned over the rail above, and says: " Well, carpenter, how do vou and Miss Thurston make it out?" " First rate, sir," said 1. 11 Well, let us have less talk there." I looked up at him with an indignant scowl. " I shall talk as much as I please, and you may help yourself the best way you can." He went off without replying a word, I kept about my duty, and finished my job, and if ever there was a man that I heartily despised, it was this one.
My duty was faithfully discharged, and my deportment such as not to come within the reach of censure. We drew near our destined port, made the island of Ceylon on the first of February, and Cape Comorin on the fifth. Our Sultan evidently began to repent his villanous treatment to these defenceless people, or else he hypocritically feigned it in order to escape that punishment he so richly deserved. He liberated Miss Thurston, saying it was done in a fit of rashness, and he had misconstrued her conduct. He also apologized to the others, who, not wishing to injure him, freely forgave all that had taken place. He was now as fawning as he was tvrannical before, and nothing was good enough for these " ladies and gentlemen." We were ten days beating up the coast of Malabar, and fell in with a ship from London, with a deck load of bloodhounds.
The crew had been on a short allowance of water for thirty days, and in consequence of not having plenty of water for the dogs, some of them would become frantic, run about the deck, frothing at the mouth — the crew escaping to the rigging until the dogs become quiet. From Cape Comorin to Bombay, the coast, ( Malabar,) is lined with pretty villages; and ships beating up, are generally close in with the land in the morning, standing off with the land breeze during the day, and running in with the sea breeze at night. The air from the shore is really refreshing after being four or five months at sea. The natives are all ready to board the ships when near enough to the shore, with a full supply of chickens, ego-s, cocoanuts, and all sorts of tropical fruit, besides excellent fish.