Yesterday was a very pleasant day. Very little
wind, but a fine sun and a smooth sea. I spent most
of the day upon deck, reading; it was not, however,
so warm but a baize gown was very comfortable.
The ship has gradually become less irksome to me.
If our cook was but tolerably clean, I could relish
my food. But he is a great, dirty, lazy negro, with
no more knowledge of cookery than a savage, nor
any kind of order in the distribution of his dishes;
but on they come, higgledy-piggledy, with a leg of
pork all bristly; a quarter of an hour after, a pudding;
or, perhaps, a pair of roast fowls, first of all,
and then will follow one by one a piece of beef,
and, when dinner is nearly completed, a plate of
potatoes. Such a fellow is a real imposition upon
the passengers. But gentlemen know but little
about the matter, and, if they can get enough to eat
five times a day, all goes well. We ladies have not
eaten, upon our whole passage, more than just
enough to satisfy nature, or to keep body and soul
together.
