Chambers Edinburgh Journal, Volume XVII., No 423, New Series. | Page 2

circle vacant
around me, so that I had ample room to make down my bed; nor was I
disturbed from a hearty sleep till the morning.
At daybreak, I was aroused by the crew getting up the anchor: in a few
minutes, the head of the 'fire-boat,' as my dusky neighbours termed it,
was turned down the coast, and on we went, steaming, smoking, and
splashing, after the most orthodox fashion of fire-boats in general. I had
now time and opportunity to look around me. Every available spot of
the deck and paddle-boxes of the small, flat-bottomed iron steamer,
was crowded with as motley a set of passengers as ever sailed since the
days of Captain Noah. Sepoys returning from furlough to join their
regiments; lascars, or enlisted workmen belonging to the different civil
branches of the army; and camp-followers in all their varieties, were
everywhere squatted on their haunches, and although muffled up to
their eyes in wrappers of cotton-cloth, were all looking miserably cold
from the sharpness of the morning breeze. The crew consisted of about
twenty sailors--half of whom were Europeans, and evidently picked
hands. Under the influence of good pay, fresh provisions without stint,

sleeping all night in their hammocks, and constant change of scene,
they were as healthy-looking and good-humoured a lot of seamen as I
had ever met with. Their principal employment seemed to be to take
their turn at the wheel; and as the natives performed most of the little
work that was to be done in a vessel of this description, carrying no
sails, I presume they were entertained only with the view of manning
the two small howitzers and half-a-dozen swivel-guns, in case our little
craft should find it necessary to shew her teeth. The remaining portion
of the men were even finer specimens of humanity than the Europeans.
With the exception of two tall, bony Scindians, they were all Seedies,
or negroes, and there was not one among them that might not have
served as a model for a Hercules. Their huge bodies presented an
appearance of massiveness and immense strength; and the enormous
muscles had even more than the prominence we find in some statues,
but so seldom meet with in men of these effeminate times. These
particulars were the more easily noted, as their style of costume, in the
daytime at least, approached very closely to nudity. But their size was
as nothing to their appetites; and deep and vasty as their internal
accommodations must have been, it remains a matter of perplexity to
me to this day to determine by what mysterious process they managed
to stow away one-half of what they devoured. I have repeatedly
watched one of these overgrown animals seat himself before a wooden
trencher, some three-quarters of a yard broad, and clear from it, as if by
magic, a mess piled up to the greatest capacity of the vessel, and
consisting of rice, garnished at the top with a couple of pounds or so of
curried meat or fish; after which, glaring around him in a hungry and
dissatisfied manner, calculated to raise unpleasant sensations in a
nervous bystander, he would sullenly catch hold of the hookah
common to the party, and seek to deaden his appetite by swallowing
down long and repeated draughts of tobacco-smoke, until the tears
came into his eyes, and he was forced to desist by a paroxysm of
coughing.
Among the passengers, there were two or three persons of my own
standing, and on the quarter-deck a small group of officers, one of
whom was accompanied by his wife. The lady had certainly no reason
to grumble at the inattention of her companions. The fair sex, although
much more plentiful at the time I speak of than ten years ago, was still

rather scarce in these parts, ladies being few and far between in the
stations beyond Kurâchee. With a praiseworthy desire to make the most
of the honour, the skipper was bustling about, giving all sorts of orders
that might in any way conduce to the comfort of his fair passenger, and
apparently in a state of mental agony when a momentary turn of the
vessel would render the awning and screens ineffectual in preserving
her from a chance ray of the sun. Two young subalterns were tumbling
over one another in the anxious endeavour to be the first to bring a
footstool; a couple of their seniors were standing by, rubbing their
hands and smiling blandly, to keep their minds in a fit state for the
perpetration of a compliment on the first possible occasion; while even
the grim old major was trying very hard to unbend: not that it was a
part of his principles to be particularly gallant to the ladies, but as he
was going