After the last voyage which I gave you an account of I accepted an offer
made me by my late employers, and became superintendent of a business
under their management in New York. Unfortunately, at the close of the
war, this business was temporarily suspended and my contract was
annulled. I then tried two or three different things on my own account,
and finally settled as agent for a paper-mill; and all things were going
on fairly well until in an unguarded moment I read an advertisement in
the New York Herald. It ran as follows: "A gentleman with experience
requires a partner with capital, in a safe business, with no risks." The
bait took, and I had an interview with "the gentleman," and saw the
persons to whom he referred me, and we joined, with the result that in
less than seven months we had changed places. I had the experience and
he had the capital, as well as the stock, and had vanished to where the
woodbine twineth. His friends told me that this was his usual way of
doing business. This was pretty cool. In a short time the same gentleman
was seeking another victim in Chicago. My advice to sailors is to "stick
to the ship."

Well, sir, the next thing I thought of was to get a ship before the
landsharks took all I had from me; and, with the assistance of Mr. Paul
Forbes, I was soon in command of the ship "Royal Saxon," owned jointly
by R. W. Cameron, of New York, and R. Towns, of Sydney. We sailed from
New York for Melbourne, and arrived there safely, though in running down
our easting about 42° south latitude we had continuous fogs.

Now, sir, to the point. The above firm despatched from New York each
alternate week one vessel for Melbourne and one for Sydney. The week
before I left, the ship "Eastward Ho," Captain Byrne, was despatched for
Sydney, and apparently all went well until she got into latitude 37° or
38° south, and a little to the eastward of the Cape of Good Hope, when