Page:Australian Emigrant 1854.djvu/30

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14
THE AUSTRALIAN EMIGRANT.

"I am a gentleman, Sir: my appointments are numerous."

"And no doubt, profitable" interrupted the mate, eyeing the quantity of gold ornaments ostentatiously displayed on the persons of his new acquisitions.

The fat man could command himself no longer: he burst into a violent fit of swearing, and threatened the mate, that if he had him in the colonies six dozen should be his reward.

The mate smiled at the successful manner in which he had "trotted out" the Colonial Magistrate, and turning upon his heel, left him to dispose of the four remaining boxes (all the rest of his luggage had been lowered into the hold,) as he pleased.

"That's the way we treat these colonial aristocrats" said the mate to Hugh.

After this scene, Hugh retired to his cabin, and for lack of a better seat, perched himself upon his berth, and waited some anxiety to see who his compagnons de voyage were to be.

A party of four, who had previously been on board, soon made their appearance, wished Hugh a good day, deposited sundry articles of bedding in their berths, and again retired. An old captain in the army then introduced himself to Hugh, explained to him he had lately sold out, that he had his family with him on board, but as the cabin he had taken was too small to accommodate all of them, he was content to make one of the nine. Two brothers, who, having no choice, were obliged to take the remaining berths on the ground tier, completed the number; and thus the superior cabin, 13 feet by 9, had its complement.

On the evening of the next day, the decks were crowded by passengers and luggage, coils of rope lay about and set landsmen wondering at their uses, trusses of hay, squeezed by machinery into such a state of solidity that it looked almost possible to put a fine polish upon them, were strewed about in