CHAPTER III

Salvage of a cargo of wine--Sailors happy--Cholera in the
Argentine--Death in the land--Dutch Harry--Pete the Greek--Noted
crimps--Boat lost--Sail for Ilha Grande--Expelled from the
port--Serious hardships.


From Buenos Aires, we proceeded up the River Plate, near the confluence
of the Parana and Paraguay, to salve a cargo of wine from the stranded
brig _Neovo San Pascual_, from Marseilles.

The current of the great river at that point runs constantly seaward,
becoming almost a sea of itself, and a dangerous one to navigate; hence
the loss of the _San Pascual,_ and many others before her.

If, like the "Ancient Mariner," we had, any of us, cried, "water, water
all around, and not a drop to drink," we forgot it now, in this
bountiful stream. Wine, too, we had without stint. The insurance agent,
to leave no excuse for tampering with the cargo, rolled out a cask of
the best, and, like a true Hans Breitmann, "knocked out der bung." Then,
too, cases were broken in the handling, the contents of which drenched
their clothes from top to toe, as the sailors carried them away on their
heads.

The diversity of a sailor's life--ah me! The experience of Dana and his
shipmates, for instance, on a sun-burnt coast, carrying dry hides on