He Then Gave The Passengers To Understand, That As It Was Low
Water, The Ship Could Not Go Into The Harbour; But That The Boat
Would Carry Them Ashore With Their Baggage.
The custom-house officer demanded a guinea for this service, and
the bargain was made.
Before we quitted the ship, we were obliged
to gratify the cabin-boy for his attendance, and to give drink-money
to the sailors. The boat was run aground on the open beach;
but we could not get ashore without the assistance of three or
four fellows, who insisted upon being paid for their trouble.
Every parcel and bundle, as it was landed, was snatched up by a
separate porter: one ran away with a hat-box, another with a wig-box,
a third with a couple of shirts tied up in a handkerchief,
and two were employed in carrying a small portmanteau that did
not weigh forty pounds. All our things were hurried to the
custom-house to be searched, and the searcher was paid for
disordering our cloaths: from thence they were removed to the
inn, where the porters demanded half-a-crown each for their
labour. It was in vain to expostulate; they surrounded the house
like a pack of hungry bounds, and raised such a clamour, that we
were fain to comply. After we had undergone all this imposition,
we were visited by the master of the packet, who, having taken
our fares, and wished us joy of our happy arrival in England,
expressed his hope that we would remember the poor master, whose
wages were very small, and who chiefly depended upon the
generosity of the passengers. I own I was shocked at his
meanness, and could not help telling him so. I told him, I could
not conceive what title he had to any such gratification: he had
sixteen passengers, who paid a guinea each, on the supposition
that every person should have a bed; but there were no more than
eight beds in the cabin, and each of these was occupied before I
came on board; so that if we had been detained at sea a whole
week by contrary winds and bad weather, one half of the
passengers must have slept upon the boards, howsoever their
health might have suffered from this want of accommodation.
Notwithstanding this check, he was so very abject and
importunate, that we gave him a crown a-piece, and he retired.
The first thing I did when I arrived at Dover this last time, was
to send for the master of a packet-boat, and agree with him to
carry us to Boulogne at once, by which means I saved the expence
of travelling by land from Calais to this last place, a journey
of four-and-twenty miles. The hire of a vessel from Dover to
Boulogne is precisely the same as from Dover to Calais, five
guineas; but this skipper demanded eight, and, as I did not know
the fare, I agreed to give him six.
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