as low as Almeria, an old Moorish town, just below Cape de Gatte, for the
remainder. Here we lay several weeks, finishing stowing our cargo. I went
ashore almost every day to market, and had an opportunity of seeing
something of the Spaniards. Our ship lay a good distance off, and we
landed at a quarantine station, half a mile, at least, from the
water-gate, to which we were compelled to walk along the beach.

One of my journeys to the town produced a little adventure. The captain
had ordered Cooper to boil some pitch at the galley. By some accident, the
pot was capsized, and the ship came near being burned. A fresh pot was now
provided, and Cooper and Dan McCoy were sent ashore, at the station, with
orders to boil down pitch on the land. There was no wharf, and it was
always necessary to get ashore through a surf. The bay is merely an elbow,
half the winds blowing in from the open sea. Sometimes, therefore, landing
is ticklish work and requires much skill. I went ashore with the pitch,
and proceeded into the town on my errands, whilst the two lads lighted
their fire and began to boil down. When all was ready, it was seen there
was a good deal of swell, and that the breakers looked squally. The
orders, however, were to go off, on such occasions, and not to wait, as
delay generally made matters worse. We got into the boat, accordingly, and
shoved off. For a minute, or more, things went well enough, when a breaker
took the bows of the jolly-boat, lifted her nearly on end, and turned her
keel uppermost. One scarcely knows how he gets out of such a scrape. We
all came ashore, however, heels over head, people, pot, boat, and oars.
The experiment was renewed, less the pitch and a pair of new shoes of
mine, and it met with exactly the same result. On a third effort, the boat
got through the surf and we succeeded in reaching the ship. These are the
sorts of scenes that harden lads, and make them fond of risks. I could not
swim a stroke, and certainly would have been drowned had not the
Mediterranean cast me ashore, as if disdaining to take a life of so little