baked. With regard to poultry, it is almoft ufelefs to carry any with you, unless you refolve to undertake the office of feeding and fattening them yourfelf. With the little care which is taken of them on board fhip, they are almoft all fickly, and their flesh is as tough as leather.

All failors entertain an opinion, which has undoubtedly originated formerly from a want of water, and when it has been found neceffary to be fparing of it, that poultry never know when they have drank enough; and that when water is given them at difcretion, they generally kill themfelves by drinking beyond measure. In confequence of this opinion, they give them water only once in two days, and even then in small quantities: but as they pour this water into troughs inclining on one fide, which occafions it to run to the lower part, it thence happens that they are obliged to mount one upon the back of another in order to reach it; and there are fome which cannot even dip their beaks in it. Thus continually tantalized and tormented by thirst, they are unable to digeft their food, which is very dry, and they foon fall fick and die. Some of them are found thus every morning, and are thrown into the fea; whilt thofe which are killed for the table are fcarcely fit to be eaten. To remedy this inconvenience, it will be neceffary to divide their troughs into small compartments, in fuch a manner that each of them may be capable of containing water; but this is feldom or never done. On this account, theep and hogs are to be confidered as the beft fresh provifion that one can have at fea; mutton there being in general very good, and pork excellent.

It may happen that fome of the provifions and

ftores which I have recommended may become al most useless, by the care which the captain has ta ken to lay in a proper flock; but in fuch a cafe you may difpofe of it to relieve the poor paffengers, who, paying lefs for their paffage, are ftowed among the common failors, and have no right to the captain's provifions, except fuch part of them as is ufed for feeding the crew. Thefe paffengers are fometimes fick, melancholy, and dejected; and there are often women and children among them, neither of whom have any opportunity of procuring those things which I have mentioned, and of which, perhaps, they have the greatest need. By diftributing among them a part of your fuperfui-. ty, you may be of the greatest afliftance to them. You may restore their health, fave their lives, and in fhort render them happy; which always affords the livelieft fenfation to a feeling mind.

The most disagreeable thing at fea is the cookery; for there is not, properly fpeaking, any profeffed cook on board. The worft failor is generally chofen for that purpofe, who for the moft part is equally dirty. Hence comes the proverb ufed among the English failors, that God fends meat, and the Devil fends cooks. Thofe, however, who have a better opinion cf Providence, will think otherwise.. Knowing that fea air, and the exercife or motion which they receive from the rolling of the fhip, have a wonderful effect in whetting the appetite, they will fay that Providence has given failors bad cooks to prevent them from eating too much; or that knowing they would have bad cooks, he has given them a good appetite to prevent them from dying with hunger. However, if you have no onfidence in thefe fuccours of Providence, you

may yourself, with a lamp and boiler, by the help of a little fpirits of wine, prepare fome food, fuch as foup, hath, &c. A fmall oven, made of tinplate, is not a bad piece of furniture: your fervant may roaft in it a piece of mutton or pork. If you are ever tempted to eat falt beef, which is often very good, you will find that cyder is the best li quor to quench the thirt generally caused by falt meat or falt fish. Sea-bifcuit, which is too hard for the teeth of fome people, may be foftened by fleeping it; but bread double baked is the beft, for being made of good loaf-bread eut into flices, and baked a fecond time, it readily imbibes water, be. comes foft, and is easily digefted; it confequently forms excellent nourishment, much fuperior to that of bifcuit, which has not been fermented.

I must here observe, that this double-baked bread was originally the real bifcuit prepared to keep at fea; for the word bifcuit, in French, fignifies twice baked *. Pease often boil badly, and do not become foft; in fuch a cafe, by putting a two-pound fhot into the kettle, the rolling of the veffel, by means of this bullet, will convert the peafe into a kind of porridge, like muftard.

Having often feen foup, when put upon the table at fea in broad flat dishes, thrown out on every fide by the rolling of the veffel, I have wifhed that our tinmen would make our foup-bafons with divifions or compartments, forming small plates, proper for containing foup for one perfon only. By this difpofition, the foup, in an extraordinary roll, would not be thrown out of the plate, and would not fall into the breafts of those who are

* It is derived from bis again, and cut baked

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at table, and scald them. Having entertained you with these things of little importance, permit me now to conclude with fome general reflections upon navigation.

When navigation is employed only for tranfporting neceffary provifions from one country, where they abound, to another where they are wanting; when by this it prevents famines, which were fo frequent and fo fatal before it was invented and became fo common; we cannot help confidering it as one of thofe arts which contribute. moft to the happiness of mankind. But when it is employed to tranfport things of no utility, or articles merely of luxury, it is then uncertain whether the advantages refulting from it are fufficient to counterbalance the misfortunes it occafions, by expofing the lives of fo many individuals upon the vaft ocean. And when it is ufed to plunder veffels and tranfport flaves, it is evidently only the dreadful means of increafing thofe calamities which affli& human nature.

One is aftonifhed to think on the number of veffels and men who are daily expofed in going to bring tea from China, coffee from Arabia, and fugar and tobacco from America; all commodities which our ancestors lived very well without. The fugar-trade employs nearly a thoufand veffels; and that of tobacco almoft the fame number. With regard to the utility of tobacco, little can be faid; and, with regard to fugar, how much more meri. torious would it be to facrifice the momentary pleasure which we receive from drinking it once or twice a-day in our tea, than to encourage the numberless cruelties that are continually exercised in order to procure it us?

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A celebrated French moralift faid, that when he confidered the wars which we foment in Africa to get negroes, the great number who of courfe perifh in thefe wars; the multitude of thofe wretches who die in their paffage, by difeafe, bad air, and bad provifions; and laftly, how many perifh by the cruel treatment they meet with in a ftate of flavery; when he faw a bit of fugar, he could not help imagining it to be covered with fpots of human blood. But, had he added to thefe confiderations the wars which we carry on one against another, to take and retake the islands that produce this commodity, he would not have feen the fugar fimply Spotted with blood, he would have beheld it entirely tinged with it.

Thefe wars make the maritime powers of Europe, and the inhabitants of Paris and London, pay much dearer for their fugar than thofe of Vienna, though they are almoft three hundred leagues diftant from the sea. A pound of fugar, indeed, cofts the former not only the price which they give for it, but also what they pay in taxes, neceffary to fupport thofe fleets and armies which ferve to defend and protect the countries that produce it