suffocation.
Then, with Gonzalo, would I have ixiven a thousand furlongs of sea for an acre of barren ground. I would have given my chance of heaven, to say nothing of California, to have been out of it, anywhere but there. This is why middle-aged and elderly men endure the hardships of a voyage to California better than young men and boys, their physique is more fixed, their minds more evenly balanced, and they know better how to make themselves comfortable. My father informs me that on his passage from Panama, many young men died of the Isthmus fever, but not a single person over forty years of age was ill with any disease. The next day the sea was higher, but the morning after it was evidently growing quieter. Following the throes of sickness comes a mental exaltation, giv- ing birth to new thoughts. Never have I felt my brain so active as while lying bracing myself in my berth for days, until my bones ached, and during which time I would be up only long enough to rush to the table for my meals, and rush back again to keep the uneasy food quiet. Thus dull intellects are whetted into keenness by the asperities of the journey, and so made ready to cut their way through the difficulties awaiting them. Moreover, this malady is the best cure in the world for love-sickness, as I have noticed in the pensive youth who had left his inamorata be- hind, and in solitary young women going to Califor- nia to be married. Indeed, upon the homoepathic hypothesis that similia shnilihus curantur, this malady is likewise an antidote for bankruptcy, conjugal infi- delity, or any ill flesh is heir too. The heart and the stomach cannot both exercise the mastery at the same time. Overwhelmed at the beginning of the voyage with the merciless fate that crucified all fond endear- ments, and indifferent to terrestrial affairs ; as the rising wind grows stronger, and the rolling waves mount higher, slowly the dominator lifts passion from the seat of the affections, and places it just below, where it plays havoc with the organs of supply.
