As it was January when we arrived, and the middle of the south-easter
season, we accordingly came to anchor at the distance of three miles
from the shore, in eleven fathoms water, and bent a slip-rope and
buoys to our cables, cast off the yard-arm gaskets from the sails,
and stopped them all with rope-yarns. After we had done this,
the boat went ashore with the captain, and returned with orders to
the mate to send a boat ashore for him at sundown. I did not go in
the first boat, and was glad to find that there was another going
before night; for after so long a voyage as ours had been, a few hours
is long to pass in sight and out of reach of land. We spent the day
on board in the usual avocations; but as this was the first time we
had been without the captain, we felt a little more freedom, and looked
about us to see what sort of a country we had got into, and were to
spend a year or two of our lives in.

In the first place, it was a beautiful day, and so warm that we had
on straw hats, duck trowsers, and all the summer gear; and as this
was mid-winter, it spoke well for the climate; and we afterwards
found that the thermometer never fell to the freezing-point throughout
the winter, and that there was very little difference between the
seasons, except that during a long period of rainy and south-easterly
weather, thick clothes were not uncomfortable.

The large bay lay about us, nearly smooth, as there was hardly a
breath of wind stirring, though the boat's crew who went ashore told
us that the long ground swell broke into a heavy surf upon the beach.
There was only one vessel in the port--a long, sharp brig of about
300 tons, with raking masts and very square yards, and English colors
at her peak. We afterwards learned that she was built at Guayaquil,