On the 3rd of May, 183—, we embarked on board our pretty yacht, "La Luna," the crew of which included all the party mentioned in the preceding pages, besides those necessary to work her. These consisted of a captain, two mates, a boatswain, fourteen seamen, a cook, a steward, and my son's gamekeeper. Captain MacNab was a remarkably nice, active, bluff, plain-spoken man. It was easy to be seen that he was not too much pleased at commanding a company composed so entirely of women and children; neither do I think he would have undertaken the charge had we not expected Sir Walter Mayton, my children's guardian, and Mr. B., their tutor, to make part of the live stock. The former was prevented accompanying us by domestic matters; the latter from his father's death. But we made arrangements for both to join us at Madeira, for it was not deemed advisable to wait the month it would take Mr. B. to settle his father's affairs and provide a home for his sisters. The weather was so beautiful it was thought we could easily spend a month in the Mediterranean, previously to extending our voyage across the Atlantic; besides I was anxious to see the promised roses restored to my little son's face, and, without being foolhardy or presumptuous, I could not entertain the least idea of danger. Our first mate, Mr. Skead, was not only extremely skilful, but the nicest merriest person on board, being quite as ready to be the boys' play-fellow as they could be to have him. Mr. Austin was the second mate, a grave religious person, who kindly acted chaplain for us. Of the seamen I need say nothing, but that they were all picked men. Alas, when I recall that day, and see so vividly before me all their rough but honest manly faces, and remember the close intimacy that, being sharers in one common home, participators in all things alike, engendered, I cannot but mourn over each face as I recall it to memory. In the few months we were together each seemed a part of the family, and in the sudden severing of our lives and fates mournful thoughts will arise as to what can have been the fate of those in whom we were so interested. But I must not anticipate, and, moreover, my task is a long one, and I have no time to spare lingering over the past. Our cook was a black man, called Benjie, which rather disturbed the peace of the little girls. They could not think the white rolls were really made by his black hands, and only his extreme good nature and willing activity caused them to be in any degree reconciled to having a black man for a cook. He was a very good one however, and willingly would we, many years after, have hailed his black face and white teeth with the joy of a dear friend. Smart, the gamekeeper, was a fine, tall, handsome man, of Gloucester make and tongue; he was quite a character in his way, and the contrast between his fear of the sea, his illness at the least gale, his utter ignorance of anything nautical was very great, when we thought of his courage, strength, and skill on shore, in his own vocation. Under his care he had two large dogs, half blood hounds half St. Bernard, their names were Bernard and Cwmro. But I must describe our vessel:—La Luna had been built expressly for her present purpose, in the river Clyde; she was of nearly 200 tons burden, three-masted, beautiful and elegant in her appearance, and nothing could exceed the convenience and comfort, combined with strength, with which she was fitted up; we had a deck house, surrounded with windows, so that we were shaded from sun and sheltered from breeze, and could see in every direction each pursuing his or her favourite occupation, and yet losing none of the beauties and wonders of the ocean; near the deck house were two berths, one for Captain MacNab, the other for Mr. Austin; down stairs we had a saloon, the length of which was the width of the vessel, and about twelve feet across; on the upper end a smaller saloon, or drawing room, the sofas of which made up four berths; the three girls used this room, and it opened into the stern cabin, where Jenny and the three younger girls slept, and through which the rudder came; at the other end was a double cabin, which served for my cousin and me, opening into the bath room, beyond that was the boys' cabin, and on the left hand side of the stern cabin was Mrs. Tollair's cabin; in the other part of the vessel were four other cabins, a steward's or servant's room, besides the seamen's berths, here also were two very excellent deck cabins for our two gentlemen whenever they joined us. We had fitted up the whole of the saloon with bookcases, of which one was devoted to the children's school books, drawing materials, and everything of that sort they might require. Our travels were at present not only indefinite as to time, but equally so as to place. We had a piano and a small hand organ, which could be carried on deck.

It would be impossible to convey any idea of the bustle, the noise, the confusion, the pleasure, the novelty that possessed everybody and everything the few days before we sailed. The leave-takings were the most painful, for having the care of so many who left the nearest and dearest ties behind them, on a voyage, the singularity of which invested it with a certain degree of mysterious danger, the nature of which no one could define, and which I now for the first time felt. All this gave a degree of sadness to the feelings of the whole party as we watched the English coast fading from our sight. I sat on the deck until a late hour recalling the happy and cheerful "God speed you" that my mother gave us, the more grave and solemn farewell of my father, whose foreboding mind looked farther than ours did. And then I recalled the parents of those with me; the hearty and oft-expressed wish of Gatty's father, high in honours and public esteem, to accompany us, the tearful farewell of her mother, dear Winny's merry and light-hearted mother, while her father bid her remember, during her long absence, the lessons of goodness and high principle he was always so anxious to inculcate in her. My brother and sister-in-law had been prevented coming to wish ZoË farewell, on account of the illness of one of her brothers. I could not but think this as well, for her mother's delicate nerves could never have borne the parting from a child so beloved, and ZoË's leave to come would have been rescinded at the last moment. Poor child! I know not whether to wish it better to have been so or not. Dear uncle P. came to wish his daughter, my cousin, good bye, and to promise once more a father's and mother's care over her two little children during her absence. I could not help being amused at his sometimes expressing a wish to go with us, and the next minute scolding us for doing anything so mad. Well, we were off! the last adieus were said, the last looks given, the last words spoken. We were off! The die is cast, and it seemed strange to me that now and only now did fearful doubts, and vain regrets, and sad forebodings oppress my heart, and take possession of my mind. With striking vividness I recalled how, mainly to please myself and amuse my mind, I had projected and finally carried out this expedition; how I had covered my own private wishes and thoughts under the plea of the good it would do my little boy, the benefit it was to all young people to enlarge their minds by travelling and experience, the novelty of the adventure, and the sort of certain uncertainty which was to attend our steps and ways during the next eight months, thus giving the charm of novelty and singularity to the whole scheme. I know not how long I should have dwelt on these circumstances, had not the children come to wish me their wonted good night. Schillie declared I had moped enough, the girls were eager that together we should take our last view of England, for the breeze that carried us now so fast through the water bid fair to take us soon out of sight of land. The young soon lose the painful feelings of parting; besides, they were so delighted at being really off, they had been so fearful lest anything should occur to prevent one or all going, so as to destroy the unity, if I may so call it, of the party, that unmitigated pleasure alone pervaded them. This buoyancy of their feelings had as yet prevented any symptoms of illness, and I don't think there was a pale face amongst the party, save the little invalid and Smart, the gamekeeper. He sat silent and amazed between his two dogs, and, could we have analyzed his feelings, I have no doubt we should have been privy to most curious and contradictory ideas. Qualms were coming over him of various kinds, equally foreign to his nature. Probably, for the first time, he was experiencing fear and sickness at the same moment, and quite unable to understand the symptoms of either. The boys had not yet found out what made their dear Smart so dull and unlike himself, when they were so joyous and delighted. We all rose up, and went together to watch the fading land. Various exclamations proved how much our thoughts dwelt on that beloved shore, and long after my short sight had deemed it passed from view did my dear girls exclaim, "they yet saw it; there were still lights." But Captain MacNab wanted his deck to himself, so with cheerful good nights, the moon being up, we descended to take our first meal on board, and use those narrow couches at which we were so much amused, and which the children had been longing to try from the moment they came on board. Such a noisy tea never was, interrupted now and then by a lurching of the vessel, which was such a new thing to us that all started, some in fear, some in fun, and some, I must own, with other feelings not very agreeable. The oddity of having nothing steady on our swinging table, the laughing at the pale looks that flitted across the faces of others, the grave determination with which little Winny declared "that now she was really a sailor, she would only eat ship biscuit," caused intense merriment. But ere tea was over one or two of our party disappeared, and when twelve o'clock arrived Captain MacNab had La Luna all to himself and his men, for the feminine crew were deep in slumber, caused by the, to them, unusual motion of the sea, and the unwonted excitement of the day.