Major Strong went with prompt fearlessness to do this, at my order; after which he remained on the Enoch Dean, and I went on board the John Adams, being compelled to succumb at last, and transfer all remaining responsibility to Captain Trowbridge.

Exhausted as I was, I could still observe, in a vague way, the scene around me.

Every available corner of the boat seemed like some vast auction-room of second-hand goods.

Great piles of bedding and bundles lay on every side, with black heads emerging and black forms reclining in every stage of squalidness.

Some seemed ill, or wounded, or asleep, others were chattering eagerly among themselves, singing, praying, or soliloquizing on joys to come.