Voyage of the Liberdade

reaks out-Bear up for Maldonado and Flores-No aid-D

I had given Victor strict orders to interfere in no way with the Spaniard, but to let him have full charge in nearly everything. I could have trusted the lad with full command, young as he was; but there was a

emember, gave me a good-humoured greeting, along with his shake of the head, that told volumes; and next day was aloft, crossing yards, cheerfully enough

e was ended. Too often one bit of bad luck follows another. This rule brought us in contact with one of these small officials at Montevideo, better adapted to home life; one of those knowing, perhaps, more than need a cowboy, but not enough for con

of trust, the sequel will show. This unwise, even stupid interference, was t

ter did not in any way affect their contract. However, I paid the crew off, and then left it to their option to re-ship or not, for they wer

ned the same as before, and all hands returned to their duty cheerful and contented-but pending the consul's decision (which, b

be held out by the most subtle crimps of Montevideo could n

eir advance money. The sailors are all paid in advance; sometimes they receive in this way most

dead horse means-sailors kn

ly granted, and I was rewarded by seeing every one return to his ship at the time promised, and every one sober. On the morrow, which was sailing day, every man was at his post and all sang "Chee

which I knew less about. The next day, three more men went down with rigor in th

mmediate medical aid were set and flew thirty-six hours before any one came to us; then a scared Yahoo (the country was still inhabited by Yahoos) in a boat rowed by two other animals, came aboard, and said, "Yes, your men have got small-pox." "Vechega" he called it, but I understand the ling

the bark was three leagues from the place. We hadn't strength to clew up, so her sails were blown away, and she went flying before the mad tempest under bare poles. A snow-white sea-bird came for shelter from the storm, and poised on the deck to rest. The incident filled my sailors with awe; to them it was a portentous omen, and in distress they dragged themselves together and, prostrate before the bird, prayed the Holy Virgin to ask God to keep them from harm. The rain beat on us in torrents, as the bark tossed and reeled ahead, and day turned bla

nd as the bark swept by with great speed, the roar of the breakers on the shore, heard above the din of the storm, told us

hurricane. She walked away with her anchors for all that we could do, till, hooking a marine cable, one

on our minds through the night; but a greater danger

, came in. Their crews, with great difficulty, were rescued and then carried to Montevideo. When all had been done that we three could do, a light was put in the rigging, that fl

ew, and begging for medical assistance. Toward night the gale went down; but, as no boat came off, a gloom darker than midnight sett

rk underway, and beat in against wind and current. No one knew this better than they on the island, for my signals had told the whole sto

the doctor, and the Yahoo-I forgot to mention that we were still in Yahoodom, but one would see that without this explanation-the Yahoo in the bow said more than both; and they all took a stiff

, for all of which we were thankful indeed, our disinfectants being by this time nearly exhausted; then, glancing at the prostrate men, he hurried away, as the other had done at Maldonado. I asked

ordered stones brought on deck, before dark, ostensibly to ballast the boat. I knew they would soon be wa

one; but gloomy, and sad, and melancholy as the case was, I had to smile when the cook, not having well-secured the ballast, threw it ov

moralized and panic-stricken, and the poor fellows begged me, if the doctor would not try to cure them, to get a priest to confess them all. I saw

lace. An English telegraph tender passing, outward-bound, caught up our signals at th

ut for us, and that the Aquidneck would be towed into port if the worst should happen-if the rest of her crew went down. Three of us weighed one anchor, with its ninety fathoms of chain, the other had parted on the windlass in the gale. The bark's p

er from the governor of Montevideo, and at last were taken in. Two of the cases were, by this time, in the favourable change. But the poor old cook, who stood faithfully by me, and would not desert his old shipmates, going with them to the Island to care for them to the last, took the dread disease, died of it, and was there buried, not far from where h

ready for use; and a guardo was put on board to use it up, which he did religiously over his own precious self, in my after-cabin, as far from the end of the ship where the danger was as he could get. Some one else disinfected el proa, not

I was not the greatest sufferer. My hardest task was to come, you will believe, at the gathering up of the trinkets and other purchases which the crew had made, thoughtful of wife and child at

TNO

were made by universal code symbols. For example, two flags hoisted representing "P" "D" signified "want (or wants) immediate medical assistance." And

igns communications may be carried on with great facility. The whole system is so beautifully simple that a child of ordinary intelligence can understand it. Even the Y

microbes, or even to larger worms; it wil