But nothing would avail me; I had no written contract, and the rest of the company offered no active resistance--so to Cyprus we went.
A voyage in an ordinary sailing-vessel, which is not a packet-boat, is as wearisome a thing as can be well conceived.

The lower portion of the ship is generally so crammed with merchandise, that the deck alone remains for the passengers.

This was the case on the present occasion.

I was obliged to remain continually on deck: during the daytime, when I had only my umbrella to shield me from the piercing rays of the sun; at night, when the dews fell so heavily, that after an hour my cloak would be quite wet through, in cold and in stormy weather.

They did not even spread a piece of sailcloth by way of awning.