Frontier and pioneer life -- Québec (Province) -- Fiction; Historical fiction; Short stories
21.--The first death took place last night, when a boy of five years
succumbed to dysentery. In the afternoon a wail suddenly arose from
the hold--a fine young woman had died from the same cause. Both were
dropped into the sea at sunset. There are fewer seasick today, but the
number ill from dysentery grows. Cornmeal was served out today instead
of biscuit. It was an injury instead of a sustenance, for it being
impossible to make stirabout of it owing to no provision having been
made for a galley for the passengers, it had to be mixed with water and
eaten raw. Some got hot water, but most had to use cold. Such food when
dysentery threatens is poison. Today was cold with a headwind that sent
the spray flying over the bows. Had a long talk this afternoon with a
very decent man who is going to Peterborough, Canada West. He thinks it
is not disease that ails the children, but cold and hunger. Food and
clothes is what they need, not medicine. The number of sick grows.
Sighted 2 ships today, both too far away to speak them.
22.--Why do we exert ourselves so little to help one another, when it
takes so little to please? Aileen coaxed the steward to let her have
some discarded biscuit bags. These she is fashioning into a sort of
gowns to cover the nakedness of several girls who could not come on
deck. The first she finished this afternoon, and no aristocratic miss
could have been prouder of her first silk dress than was the poor child
of the transformed canvas bag, which was her only garment.
23.--This is Sunday. The only change in the routine of the ship that
marks the day is that the sailors gave an extra wash down to the decks
and after that did no work except trim the sails. They spent the
forenoon on the forecastle mending or washing their clothes. During
the afternoon it grew cold, with a strong wind from the northeast,
accompanied by driving showers. Towards sunset the sea was a lather of
foam, and the wind had increased to a gale. When the waves began to
flood the deck, the order was given to put the hatches on. God help the
poor souls shut in beneath my feet! With hatches open, the hold was
unbearable to me. With them closed, what will it be by morning? It is
growing so dark I cannot see to write more, for a light is forbidden
to us. The wind is still rising and the thump of the waves as they
strike the ship’s side grows more violent. The shouting of orders,
the tramp and rush of the sailors to obey them, the swaying of the
ship, the groaning of her timbers and masts, and the constant swish of
water rushing across the deck, combine to make me most melancholy and
forebodings of evil darken my soul. Aileen is on her knees, the calm
and resignation of a saint resting upon her face. There is a faith in
God that rises above the worst of the world’s trials.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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