History of the Parsis : including their manners, customs, religion and present position : with coloured and other illustrations : in two volumes

86 HISTORY OF THE PARSIS. [CHAP. II.

Helena Captain Grant recommended me to Captain Fasteau of the Danish ship. On board his vessel we used to get one biscuit a head in the morning, and at four or five o’clock some khichri or boiled rice. In this manner we struggled on, bordering on starvation. The Danish captain, for sixteen hundred sika rupees, gave us such miserable berths that they were worse than those on a country craft which we get for Rs.50 ; but there was no help, as our necessity was paramount. He gave one pot of water between nine men _ both for cooking and drinking.

“For about fifteen days after we left Ceylon, till we reached Achin, the cold was severe, severer than that experienced in China. My sufferings and privations were such as I had never before experienced, and I am unable to express them in writing.

“When the Brunswick struck on shore she made seventeen feet of water; the pump was constantly at work, day and night, but the quantity could not be lessened. The cargo, consisting of shark-fins, bales of cotton, and sandal-wood, was more or less damaged. At the Cape, there being only two or three merchants, they thought they would be able to buy up the goods at a low price,—the rigging, cordage, masts, etc., being serviceable for the men-of-war. The merchants at the Cape conjectured that, as there were no purchasers, the ship and cargo would hardly fetch fifty to sixty thousand dollars. But had the ship been to