leave me, I would frequently start up in affright, and grope about for the air-tube to insert in my mouth, and I was forced to get the carpenter to make me a wooden tube, which I placed between my lips on going to bed, and by this means I succeeded in sleeping soundly. For many days I felt encumbered with my own weight, and this fatigued me so much that I spent much of my time in the recumbent posture. The captain, who was a good-natured fellow, would often sit for hours beside me listening to my accounts of the aquatic people and their odd ways. Now that I had made my escape from Colymbia, I often felt a sort of regret that I had left it, and an irrepressible longing for the watery life I had abandoned. However, I managed to conquer this feeling, and I looked forward with pleasure to once more seeing my family and friends in England, who, I felt assured, must be extremely anxious on my account.
After an uneventful voyage we arrived safely in Hobart Town, where I persuaded the captain to touch, as I knew I should find there some friends who had been settled there for a few years, and who would assist me to return to England. Captain Hans Wurst bade me an affectionate farewell, and advised me not to say anything of my sojourn in Colymbia to the people in Hobart Town, as he was sure I should not be believed, and might only raise a prejudice against myself, and get the character of a romancing traveller if not of an absolute madman. He frankly confessed that had he not picked me up in the manner he did, he would not have believed a word of my story, though sailors were naturally disposed to believe about mermen and mermaids. He was sure that no landsman would believe that I spoke the truth.
