at that time, in consequence of the malignant fevers that
prevailed on the coast, was not inaptly termed "the grave of
American seamen." The crew consisted of the captain and mate,
five sailors, a green hand to act as cook, and a cabin boy.
There was also a passenger on board, a young man named Chadwick,
who had been residing in Portsmouth, and was going to Demarara,
in the hope which fortunately for him was not realized of
establishing himself in a mercantile house.

The forecastle being, for obvious reasons, untenable during the
outward passage, these ten individuals, when below deck, were
stowed away in the cabin and steerage, amid boxes, bales, chests,
barrels, and water casks, in a manner somewhat miscellaneous, and
not the most commodious or comfortable. Indeed, for several days
after we left port, the usual and almost only access to the cabin
was by the skylight; and those who made the cabin their home,
were obliged to crawl on all fours over the heterogeneous mass of
materials with which it was crowded, in order to reach their
berths!

The owners of the brig must have calculated largely on favorable
weather during the passage; for had we experienced a gale on the
coast, or fallen in with the tail-end of a hurricane in the
tropics, the whole deck-load would have been swept away, and the
lives of the ship's company placed in imminent peril. The
weather, however, proved remarkably mild, and the many
inconveniences to which the crew were subjected were borne with
exemplary patience, and sometimes even regarded as a capital
joke.