France -- Description and travel; France -- Social life and customs
_April 29th._--We embarked at half-past nine on board the Trafalgar,
Captain Melle; we waited for passengers for above half an hour; the
ship was very full--there were twelve of ourselves, a foreigner, Mr.
and Mrs. Wilkinson, six children, their uncle William, Miss Ash, a
manservant and a maid, who were going to Smyrna; the next people I
observed were three tall young women with hats and feathers; they had
a mattrass put in a boat, which they lay on, there was an old woman
with them; next came Mr. Johnson, his sister and daughter; an affected
lady; Mrs. Moses and a little girl; a French lady and her daughter;
two gentlemen with plaids; a curious old man and an old lady; besides
servants and many other people whose names I do not know. There were
fifty passengers. It was so foggy that we could hardly see Dover
Cliffs. Before we sailed the old man came and sat down not far from us.
He was very shabbily dressed, and looked a curious figure. A man came
and asked him for some money for carrying down his luggage to the ship.
'Nononono, no no,' said the old man; 'I paid you for my breakfast.'
'But my master, and not I, got that money,' said the man. 'No no no
no, 'said the old gentleman, tapping the deck with his cane, and his
stomach with his hand. The man continued to remonstrate, saying that he
paid those who did nothing, and did not give anything to those who were
really useful; but it was all in vain. So he went away, and presently
returned with another man, and they both tried to persuade the old
man to give them something. 'Nono-nono-nono,'said he. 'I gave you so
much' (mentioning what it was); 'nono-no.' 'But that was for your
breakfast, sir, and not for carrying your trunks.' 'Nono-no no; keep
it to yourself, keep it to yourself,' said he, nodding, and at last
the two men were obliged to leave the ship without having accomplished
their purpose. One of them muttered as he went along, 'I'm sure if
I'd known this I would not have taken all this trouble; such work as
I've had, hunting after that old man's gloves for this half-hour.' We
could not tell who he was, nor did any person appear to know him, as
they sometimes spoke English to him and sometimes French, he always
returning the answer, 'No-no.' He continued to nod and talk to himself
long after the men were gone, to our great amusement. I was very sorry
to leave England, but I had not much time to think about it, as the
ship began to move. As I had not been in a ship before, I was very
much frightened, and when the ship leant to one side I felt as if we
were all falling into the sea together. A great wave came over the
ship, and wetted all the people at that side, who were obliged to run
up higher. Mamma was so ill, she looked like death. She said you might
have thrown her into the sea, or done anything with her. After a short
time I was sick also; indeed there were hardly any of the passengers
that were not, except Euphemia, William, and Caroline[1]. One of the
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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