It is a pity that some other arrangement is not made in merchant vessels with regard to the liberty-day.  When in port, the crews are kept at work all the week, and the only day they are allowed for rest or pleasure is Sunday; and unless they go ashore on that day, they cannot go at all.  I have heard of a religious captain who gave his crew liberty on Saturdays, after twelve o’clock.  This would be a good plan, if shipmasters would bring themselves to give their crews so much time.  For young sailors especially, many of whom have been brought up with a regard for the sacredness of the day, this strong temptation to break it is exceedingly injurious.  As it is, it can hardly be expected that a crew, on a long and hard voyage, will refuse a few hours of freedom from toil and the restraints of a vessel, and an opportunity to tread the ground and see the sights of society and humanity, because it is a Sunday.  They feel no objection to being drawn out of a pit on the Sabbath day.

I shall never forget the delightful sensation of being in the open air, with the birds singing around me, and escaped from the confinement, labor, and strict rule of a vessel,—­ of being once more in my life, though only for a day, my own master.  A sailor’s liberty is but for a day; yet while it lasts it is entire.  He is under no one’s eye, and can do whatever, and go wherever, he pleases.  This day, for the first time, I may truly say, in my whole life, I felt the meaning of a term which I had often heard,—­ the sweets of liberty.  Stimson was with me, and, turning our backs upon the vessels, we walked slowly along, talking of the pleasure of being our own masters, of the times past, when we were free and in the midst of friends, in America, and of the prospect of our return; and planning where we would go, and what we would do, when we reached home.  It was wonderful how the prospect brightened, and how short and tolerable the voyage appeared, when viewed in this new light.  Things looked differently from what they did when we talked them over in the little dark forecastle, the night after the flogging, at San Pedro.  It is not the least of the advantages of allowing sailors occasionally a day of liberty, that it gives them a spring, and makes them feel cheerful and independent, and leads them insensibly to look on the bright side of everything for some time after.

Stimson and I determined to keep as much together as possible, though we knew that it would not do to cut our shipmates; for, knowing our birth and education, they were a little suspicious that we would try to put on the gentleman when we got ashore, and would be ashamed of their company; and this won’t do with Jack.  When the voyage is at an end, you do as you please; but so long as you belong to the same vessel, you must be a shipmate to him on shore, or he will not be a shipmate to you on board.  Being forewarned of this before I went to sea, I took no ``long togs’’ with me; and being dressed