"Tea," however, we had in abundance; though, I dare say, the Hong merchants never had the shipping of it.

Beside this, every other day we had what English seamen call "shot soup"-- great round peas, polishing themselves like pebbles by rolling about in tepid water.
It was afterward told me, that all our provisions had been purchased by the owners at an auction sale of condemned navy stores in Sydney.
But notwithstanding the wateriness of the first course of soup, and the saline flavour of the beef and pork, a sailor might have made a satisfactory meal aboard of the Julia had there been any side dishes--a potato or two, a yam, or a plantain.

But there was nothing of the kind.

Still, there was something else, which, in the estimation of the men, made up for all deficiencies; and that was the regular allowance of Pisco.
It may seem strange that in such a state of affairs the captain should be willing to keep the sea with his ship.

But the truth was, that by lying in harbour, he ran the risk of losing the remainder of his men by desertion; and as it was, he still feared that, in some outlandish bay or other, he might one day find his anchor down, and no crew to weigh it.
With judicious officers the most unruly seamen can at sea be kept in some sort of subjection; but once get them within a cable's length of the land, and it is hard restraining them.