comfort in travelling, then submit with resignation to
all ordinary impositions. Resign yourself at the out-
set to the carrier as his victim, as the arbiter, for the
time, of your fate. Do not expect land luxuries at
sea ; man is a terrestrial and not an aqueous animal.
Not the least in the catalogue of annoyances, fretful-
ness, and complainings, the passengers bring upon them-
selves. Go into the hot, fetid air of the second cabin
and steerage, then be ashamed to nurse your discom-
forts in your upper room. The smell of oil from the
machinery, and filth from various quarters is nauseat-
ing, it is true; but I have suffered more from the
disgusting behavior of passengers than from filthy
ships and discourteous emplo^^es. Nor do I mean to
say that Californians are especially bad travellers; as
a rule they were, even in early times, orderly, quiet,
and well-behaved ; and when time had tempered their
spirits, hilarity and good humor prevailed. Other-
wise how should 1500 men, women, and children
have been able to exist, crowded into close quarters
for nearly a month, and much of the time under a
tropical sun ?
Every sensible man then setting out for California well knew that he should have to rough it; or, if he did not know it at the start he soon found it out, and he soon saw that he might as well begin to make the best of discomforts on ship board as any where else. Those so thinking yielded gracefully to what they saw was inevitable, and found that after all happiness does not depend so much on having things a little better than our neighbor, and that a little comfort, with a heart disposed to be contented, carries with it much happiness. Besides, all were certain of fortune, or at least felicity, the moment they reached San Francisco; and so, in place of brooding over present privations, they rather dreamed of future plenty.
There were notable exceptions to these systematic impositions, even on the Atlantic side ; while on the Pacific, the rule was reversed. I have often been told
