This prolonged stagnation and petty watchfulness in
what Napoleon himself called that 'unchristian' climate, told
cruelly on the health of the ship's company. In eighteen months,
according to O'Meara, the CONQUEROR had lost one hundred and ten
men and invalided home one hundred and seven, being more than a
third of her complement. It does not seem that our young
midshipman so much as once set eyes on Bonaparte; and yet in other
ways Jenkin was more fortunate than some of his comrades. He drew
in water-colour; not so badly as his father, yet ill enough; and
this art was so rare aboard the CONQUEROR that even his humble
proficiency marked him out and procured him some alleviations.
Admiral Plampin had succeeded Napoleon at the Briars; and here he
had young Jenkin staying with him to make sketches of the historic
house. One of these is before me as I write, and gives a strange
notion of the arts in our old English Navy. Yet it was again as an
artist that the lad was taken for a run to Rio, and apparently for
a second outing in a ten-gun brig.
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