briny sailors of the strand, ah me!--and hope to be forgiven!

Be the current against us, what matters it? Be it in our favour, we are
carried hence, to what place or for what purpose? Our plan of the whole
voyage is so insignificant that it matters little, maybe, whither we go,
for the "grace of a day" is the same! Is it not a recognition of this
which makes the old sailor happy, though in the storm; and hopeful even
on a plank in mid-ocean? Surely it is this! for the spiritual beauty of
the sea, absorbing man's soul, permits of no infidels on its boundless
expanse.

THE AUTHOR




CHAPTER I

The ship--The crew--A hurricane--Cape Verde Islands--Frio--A
_pampeiro_.


To get underweigh: It was on the 28th of February 1886, that the bark
_Aquidneck_, laden with case-oil' sailed from New York for Montevideo,
the capital o' Uruguay, the strip of land bounding the River Plate on
the east, and called by the natives "Banda Oriental." The _Aquidneck_
was a trim and tidy craft of 326 tons' register, hailing from Baltimore,
the port noted for clippers, and being herself high famed above them all
for swift sailing, she had won admiration on many seas.