could hardly hold our marline-spikes.

  I have here gone out of my narrative course in order that any who
may read this may form as correct an idea of a sailor's life and
duty as possible. I have done it in this place because, for some time,
our life was nothing but the unvarying repetition of these duties,
which can be better described together. Before leaving this
description, however, I would state, in order to show landsmen how
little they know of the nature of a ship, that a ship-carpenter is
kept in constant employ during good weather on board vessels which are
in, what is called, perfect sea order.

  CHAPTER IV

  A ROGUE--TROUBLE ON BOARD--"LAND HO!"--POMPERO--CAPE HORN

  After speaking the Carolina, on the 21st August, nothing occurred to
break the monotony of our life until-

  Friday, September 5th, when we saw a sail on our weather (starboard)
beam. She proved to be a brig under English colors, and passing
under our stern, reported herself as forty-nine days from Buenos
Ayres, bound to Liverpool. Before she had passed us, sail ho!" was
cried again, and we made another sail, far on our weather bow, and
steering athwart our hawse. She passed out of hail, but we made her
out to be an hermaphrodite brig, with Brazilian colors in her main
rigging. By her course, she must have been bound from Brazil to the
south of Europe, probably Portugal.

  Sunday, September 7th. Fell in with the north-east trade-winds. This
morning we caught our first dolphin, which I was very eager to see.
I was disappointed in the colors of this fish when dying. They were
certainly very beautiful, but not equal to what had been said of them.
They are too indistinct. To do the fish justice, there is nothing more
beautiful than the dolphin when swimming a few feet below the surface,
on a bright day. It is the most elegantly formed, and also the
quickest fish, in salt water; and the rays of the sun striking upon
it, in its rapid and changing motions, reflected from the water,
make it look like a stray beam from a rainbow.

  This day was spent like all pleasant Sabbaths at sea. The decks
are washed down, the rigging coiled up, and everything put in order;
and throughout the day only one watch is kept on deck at a time. The
men are all dressed in their best white duck trowsers, and red or
checked shirts, and have nothing to do but to make the necessary
changes in the sails. They employ themselves in reading, talking,
smoking, and mending their clothes. If the weather is pleasant, they
bring their work and their books upon deck, and sit down upon the
forecastle and windlass. This is the only day on which these
privileges are allowed them. When Monday comes, they put on their
tarry trowsers again, and prepare for six days of labor.

  To enhance the value of the Sabbath to the crew, they are allowed on
that day a pudding, or, as it is called, a "duff." This is nothing
more than flour boiled with water, and eaten with molasses. It is very
heavy, dark, and clammy, yet it is looked upon as a luxury, and really
forms an agreeable variety with salt beef and pork. Many a rascally
captain has made friends of his crew by allowing them duff twice a
week on the passage home.

  On board some vessels this is made a day of instruction and of
religious exercises; but we had a crew of swearers, from the captain
to the smallest boy; and a day of rest and of something like quiet,
social enjoyment, was all that we could expect.

  We continued running large before the north-east trade winds for
several days, until Monday-

  September 22d, when, upon coming on deck at seven bells in the
morning, we found the other watch aloft, throwing water upon the
sails; and looking astern, we saw a small clipper-built brig with a
black hull heading directly after us. We went to work immediately, and
put all the canvas upon the brig which we could get upon her,
rigging out oars for studding-sail yards; and continued wetting down
the sails by buckets of water whipped up to the mast-head, until about
nine o'clock, when there came on a drizzling rain. The vessel
continued in pursuit, changing her course as we changed ours to keep
before the wind. The captain, who watched her with his glass, said
that she was armed, and full of men, and showed no colors. We
continued running dead before the wind, knowing that we sailed
better so, and that clippers are fastest on the wind. We had also
another advantage. The wind was light, and we spread more canvas
than she did, having royals and sky-sails fore and aft, and ten
studding-sails; while she, being an hermaphrodite brig, had only a
gaff top-sail, aft. Early in the morning she was overhauling us a
little, but after the rain came on and the wind grew lighter, we began
to leave her astern. All hands remained on deck throughout the day,
and we got our arms in order; but we were too few to have done
anything with her, if she had proved to be what we feared. Fortunately
there was no moon, and the night which followed was exceedingly
dark, so that by putting out all the lights on board and altering
our course four points, we hoped to get out of her reach. We had no
light in the binnacle, but steered by the stars, and kept perfect
silence through the night. At daybreak there was no sign of anything
in the horizon, and we kept the vessel off to her course.

  Wednesday, October 1st. Crossed the equator in long. 24 deg. 24' W.
I now, for the first time, felt at liberty, according to the old
usage, to call myself a son of Neptune, and was very glad to be able
to claim the title without the disagreeable initiation which so many