The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1886-12-15

le1J NEW Ork, anu Sne knew lOLDlnS tnat
we had not heard, because we had been so
recently in Porto Grande, and she was l6
days out frnm Cardiff, bound for Singapore
around Good Hope.
Oct 6, 1886.
At half past eight this morning we crossed
the line. AS the Captain signifed his inten-
ton to keep the supreme command of his
own crew and ship, King Neptune thought
proper not to interfere, so we were not visit
ed by his Majesty. All but two of us in the
steerage had never crossed the line, and all
but two in the wardroom had done so. We
paid our tribute to Neptune by giving little
lawn party and lunch in the steerage.
thought that that was running the old Gus
tom under ground. for it is the prerogative OF
crossed before into giving. him a drink. So
| sent bottle of Port wine to one of the sea.
men with instructions to make it go as far as
possible among the old liners. There is a
superstition that if you do not pay tribute to
Neptune when You cross the line you will
never cross back again.
We are now in the southern hemisphere
save in the daytime, so we cannot enlarge on
its beauties until we get someIdegrees further
south. We will not see it all the night unit
we cross the Tropic of Capricorn. No great
change has taken place in the surrounding
of our ship either in the sea or sky, and as
the line is not very well defined we could not
tell that we had crossed it except for our OBJ.
servations. But within a week the sun will
be to the nolthward of us at noon, and then
we can fully realize that we have left that
honest part of the world where everybody is
upright and sensible, and have come to a
place where all is topsy-turvy.
got up this morning at four o'clock-a
grand autumn morning. The foliage of oul
cross-trees was tinged with streaks Of vel
low, brisk wind was blowing gen4ly, but
firmly from the southwark as if it were
bound on crusade against the icy winds OF
winter. took siesta this afternoon and
must have slept through a whole winter, fol
now it is early spring. the same breezes
blowing, but now they are bringing with
them the balm of summer. l suppose il
must be easier to go from autumn into spring
than from summer into winter, for the differ
ence of temperature would not be so great in
the first. Imagine a man having to put of
his ulster and flannels and then to put on
summer clothes right away.
Oct IA.
This noon the sun bore north As the
sun goes around from east to west by way of
north that little smile about the hands of q
clock going around like the sun is proven
consummate falsehood, because its falsity is
so apparent. All our right handed ropes
were coiled down with the sun before yes
terday, but now every one of them is coiled
against it. We are sailing along close hauled
on the southeast trade winds and trying to
haul up so as to fetch the position of some Of
ourlsoundings off Mentevideo, the Enterprise
bank that it is our especial duty to explore
thoroughly.
Two days ago our nayig ator who is a sci
entife man, caught and chloroformed a
Mother Carey's chicken. AS a result the
ship was followed yesterday by a shark
When Mother Carey's chicken is killed the
tradition is that shark follows the chip un.
til the bird killer tumbles overheard or the
ship sinks. The shark left us to-day. as the
navigator positively refused to be eaten by
the shark and the latter got hungry after a
while. | firmly believe in the superstition
with regard to these birds, but / strongly
suspect that Mr.. Shark presence was owing
in greatmeasure to the abundance of flying
fish in the vicinity of the ship.
For servants, we have Japanese steward
cook and serving boy and a mulatto boy
The steward is very good looking little fel
low, and from his excessive studiousness i
very well informed and speaks the Englisl
language very well, but he has a will of hi.
own and is wont to use it as much as posi-
Bile. He does not hesitate to answer back, il
fact he is quick to do SO, and he seems tt
think that he is too well educated to pay tn,
same amount of respect to his officers thai
the other members Of the crew do. He anC
the other Japanese boy, Wada, are always a
variance with the colored boy, and Matsua
Jumatsee, for such is the stewards name
has a particularly disagreeable air toward
him. The other evening | heard Matsua
who was going on deck, call to the coloreC
boy, George, please hand me dictionary
Tine book was brought, and the next thing ]
heard was, Thank you. damn Niger" ut
tered in perfectly natural tone of voice
with not bit of the anger that one would
think accompanied bysuch an expression
Matsua has his own his own ideas of the fit.
ness of things. and the caterer of the mess
has generally let him have his own way with
regard to what he feeds us with. In our sea
stores we must have necessarily a large
quantity of certain things, and the steward
always has served up the same thing day af-
ter day and meal after meal, until all OF thai
commodity is exhausted and he can COM
mence to run on something else. He has
been told time and again that his methods
were not of the best and has been warned
and threatened with regard to certain dishes
bnt at the next meal they always pop up
again. He has strange ideas of cookery,
one of his foibles being the serving up of
fried sardines, and by such schemes as these
he strives to vary the monotony of his sys-
TEN. At dinner to-day the caterer called
Matsua into the starboard steerage where
we dine, and asked him how the stores
were holding out. "The corned beef has all
gone" answered the steward. Gan gonel |"
repeated the whole mess, and all had ioy-
full information in their voices, all except the
caterer, who is held responsible for Matsua's
shortcomings, and such expressions always
hurt his feelings. This one most assuredly
did, especially since one man accompanied it
with fervent "Thank heayenw The re-
port that there were still large number of
boxes of sardines ELECTED snbdued groan
from the mess; but when we heard that the
salmon upon which we have been fed all the
time during the last two or three weeks was
slowly vanishing, our spirits rose. 1t is Gus
tomary for mariners to be afflicted with fam
inc, but this is the first time that have ever
heard it welcomed. But such delicacies as
sardines have been fed to us at regular meals
so often and so continuously that even though
they were under their maiden names of her.
ring, inhabitants of my own native State,
and the waters thereof, would turn my
back to them even while under the holy pro-
lection of Sunday school picnic.
Our other japanese boy, Wada, is curl
osity His face and peculiarities would
make his fortune as court jester. In awk-
wardness | have never seen his equal. He
can never keep his feet, whether the ship
is rolling or lying still, yet he seldom falls,
but lives in chronic state OF stumbling. He
swears continually, because he hears other