By and by the captain, Mr. Hendee, came on board with a few friends, and they all entered into an adjoining cabin. I retired to sleep, but these gentlemen made such a noise the most part of the night that I doubt whether the people within half a mile had any rest at at all. The corks coming out of the wine-bottles with loud reports, the gentlemen knocking on the floor, their songs and imperfect utterance of “Fa-re-well,” all these filled my heart with new and various thoughts. I feared if these men were to be on board all the way, I had better learn Christianity in Calcutta, and not take the voyage to America. The first part of their singing was very good I enjoyed one song especially,-- “I am bound for the land of Canaan,” etc.; but as they got under the influence of new or old wine, their songs changed into-- “For to-night we will merry, merry be.” The knocking on the floor grew so violent that I feared they would either hurt their feet or break the boards; and a Sanscrith saying came into my mind: “The animal with long, pointed horns and sharp teeth, and a man with wine in his stomach are to be avoided alike.” By midnight I heard some one vomiting, and remembered the saying that the pleasures arising from dissipation and sensuality very soon bring sickness and misery. Early on the next morning, Wednesday, January 27, 1858, Mr. Dall came on board with all the necessaries for a four months’ voyage, and went down as far as the mouth of the Ganges, returning to Calcutta on Friday by the steam propeller that brought our ship down. Among various kind, useful, and fatherly counsels, he warned me not to learn the profane language that is freely used on board the ship, and wanted to know if I had any farewell words to say to him. “Take care of my dear mother,” was my charge to him, which he has carried out in Christian ways. He also made a little blank-book for me which he called my “Journal,” with the following advice and instructions:-- JOURNAL. “I left Calcutta on Wednesday, January 27th, 1858, for Boston, United States of America. _Resolves._ “(1.) I will read the Bible as often as I can, and stay my lonely heart on God by faith, prayer, and trust in Jesus Christ. “(2.) I will daily pray the Lord’s Prayer, and rest all my anxieties on ‘Give us THIS DAY our daily bread,’ and on ‘THY WILL, not mine, BE DONE.’ “(3.) I will try to read the Bible _through_, from Genesis to Revelation, on this voyage, and will make a record, if possible, of the best thoughts as they suggest themselves to me.