gardless of the pouring rain, and each seemed to be holding his breath with fright. This brought to my mind the words of holy writ: "Deep calleth unto deep at the voice of thy water-spouts."-Psalms, 42, 7th verse. The suspense was horrible. All at once the captain thundered out: "Fire!" Whiz, bang, went the charge and sent the one pound iron ball into the water-spout, which collapsed into a seething, swirling, foaming mass of lumpy ocean. It appeared to have contained a sufficient quantity of water to have submerged the ship twenty feet deep. We were saved. I felt at that moment that I could forgive Capt. Blanchard for all his previous shortcomings, for had the water-spout struck the ship in its entirety it would have sunk her there and then. After the collapse of the water-spout a discussion arose between Doctor Doriot, who was educated in Girard College, and Mr. Shorb, the Virginia lawyer, who had been educated at Yale, where most of the young Southerners were graduated at that time. Doctor Doriot remarked that the aim of Mr. Cranston had been very accurate, for the ball had penetrated the water-spout, and thereby destroyed the suction, and hence the collapse. Mr. Shorb said that such was not the case. He said that the explosion of the powder had caused a concussion in the air and consequently had destroyed the entity of the water-spout and caused its total collapse. The two collegians continued their wrangling in the cabin to the annoyance of the other passengers, who were satisfied with the result without caring about hairsplitting theories. Towards noon the weather began to clear up and the wind changed to the northwest, giving us a fair wind. By the noon observation our latitude was 9 85 south, longitude 37 40 west, making the distance from Rio de Janeiro 950 miles; course, S. S. W. It was now the fourth day of December and we began to look forward with pleasure to an early arrival in Rio de Janeiro. We sighted a vessel occasionally, steering south like ourselves, which made it seem very companionable from the fact that when at sea there is nothing in sight but sky and water and the only living thing to be seen is the poor little "mother Carey's chickens," which little creatures become endeared to the sailor by their constant companionship on the wide, lonely ocean. Mother Carey's chickens are little ocean birds that very much resemble the little swallows that are so common around the barn on shore. They follow a ship constantly, in sunshine and in storm, and dart around her like little guardian angels to look out for the welfare of poor Jack. The mate now ordered the masts to be scraped, the rigging tarred down, the bulwarks to be painted, and everything on board to be made sightly and presentable. Mr. Bryson was now as busy as a hen with twenty chickens. He kept the men hard at it from 8 o'clock in the morning until noon, and from 1 P. M. until 5 P. M. As to me, they never called upon me to do more than what I agreed to do. That was to "work ship," take my regular trick at the wheel and my turn at the lookout. Capt. Blanchard again sent for young Brainard, who, in obedience to the summons, went into the lower cabin, where the captain detained him for nearly an hour. When he returned on deck I saw that he looked flushed and troubled. The first opportunity he had he told me that the captain had demanded of him that he turn over to him his father's papers, including the bills of lading, as he, being but a boy, was not a fit custodian for them. He declined to yield to the captain's demand; he then told him that he was but an interloper on board of his ship, and for that reason he would put him ashore the very moment that the anchor was dropped in Rio de Janeiro. This threat produced a very depressing effect on the poor youth and caused the tears to run down his cheeks. I pitied the poor fellow and tried to console him with cheering words. I then thought of the poetic couplet: "Man's inhumanity to man, Makes countless thousands mourn." The weather was now very warm, and the wind a whole sail breeze from east to east nor'east, and our course was south southwest. December tenth, by observation at noon, was lat. 11 17 S., long. 41 03 W. All hands and the passengers availed themselves of the chance to use the rain water, which we had saved during the rainstorm, and the decks. presented the appearance of a floating laundry. We washed our sea-going clothes and scrubbed our persons to get off a coating of salt about a quarter of an inch thick, as we had been deprived of our fresh water privileges for a long time. The passengers now began to practice the tonsorial art upon one another-cutting the hair, trimming the whiskers of more than sixty days' growth, shaving and shampooing. Our fare at the table began to improve, as the steward and the cooks knew that they would have a respite from their labors for a time after we arrived in Rio. We had for dinner, daily, besides beef and pork, baked beans, boiled hominy, tapioca pudding enriched with eggs, and cornstarch pudding with cheese. For supper, dried beef sliced, hot biscuits, dried apple sauce, and fine doughnuts. December eighteenth the cry of "land ho!" from a man aloft. "Where away?" sung out the mate. "Three points on the lee-bow, sir!" "Very well," said the mate. The captain was called, who at once came on deck. He and the mate held a conference, and they decided that the land in sight was Cape Frio, lat. 23 01 S., long. 41 59 W. The captain ordered the man at the wheel to keep her off two points. "Aye, aye, sir!" responded the man, at the same time swaying the helm to port. The weather braces were ordered to be checked in and the ship felt the impulse of the favoring breeze and accelerated her speed considerably. After dark we sighted Cape Frio light. The captain ordered the mates to place two men on the look-out, as we were in the track of vessels that were bound into Rio. The passengers stood around on deck until eight bells, discussing the probable length of our detention in Rio. One gentleman from Pennsylvania who was on board with his wife, declared that if he ever got a chance to put his feet on dry land once more that he would not go to sea again with such a captain, even if he and his wife had to work their passage back to their home. But the gentleman had no occasion to do so for the reason that he had ample means, and afterwards he left the ship in Rio and took passage for himself and wife in the ship "Ducalion," that touched at Rio on her way to San Francisco. son On the nineteenth we had a spanking breeze and old "Samwas putting in her best licks. The captain had now laid aside all foolishness and staid on deck all day, watched the weather, conned the helm, and observed all that was going on. I then thought that if he had acted thus from the time that we took our departure from Cape Henlopen we would now have been well on towards Cape Horn by this time. We were overtaken by a number of vessels that were steering the same course. We were spoken by one vessel showing the Danish flag-red ground and white cross-but as there was no Dane on board our ship we couldn't understand them. On the twentieth of December we entered the harbor of Rio de Janeiro. We went in by the Sugar Loaf-a conical rock that rises sharply out of the water and reaches up many hundred feet, and, as its name designates, in shape of a sugar loaf. Next we passed the fortresses Santa Cruz and San Juan, and sailed up towards the anchorage, and the chains having been shackled to the anchors and the lashings cast off, the order was given to take in sail. Down came the royals; down came the topgallantsails; up went the courses, down came the jib; down came the three topsails; down came the foretopmast staysail. The spanker brought the ship up to the wind and she lost her headway. "Stand by your larboard anchor!" "Aye, aye, sir!" answered the mate. As the ship reached up to the wind and began to gather sternway, the order was given: "Let go your anchor!" "Let go it is!" and way went the anchor, and whirr went the chain until the anchor struck bottom. Then the ship trended to the wind; then we were safe in Rio de Janeiro, after a tedious voyage of seventy-six days. As I looked around the harbor with its numerous shipping, and cast my eyes towards the beautiful city before us, |