. I
went on board and got my berth and baggage all in. About 11 o'clock I
saw my friend coming over the water making for the vessel. There was
considerable confusion on board at the time, passengers constantly
arriving, and he was not noticed, and he went to work among the hands as
if he had been regularly employed. In a short time the officers were
arranging the men in line to pass the baggage, and said to him: "You
stand here and help pass it," of course, taking him for one of the men
of the boat. In the evening he came and spoke to me. I said all right so
far. But in the morning, he said, they are going to examine every
person, then they will put me ashore. I said, keep a stiff upper lip. If
you get in trouble, come to me.

The next morning the gun fired, the anchor was raised, and we sailed
down to Bogota, an island similar to Staten Island in the New York
Harbor. The health officers came out. Then my friend trembled and
thought the day of judgment had come to him, but the health officers
were on board but a short time. No examination of those on board took
place. The signal gun for departure was fired. We passed out of the
harbor. The bow of our vessel was pointed north, and we felt extremely
happy. I said to him, "This vessel is bound for San Francisco, and you
are aboard, and will get there as soon as I will." A few days after that
the mate was arranging the employment of the men, and when he came to my
friend's turn he said to him, "Who employed you? You are not an
able-bodied seaman." He made no reply. They could see he was a man of
intelligence, and his pale look showed he had been sick. It may have
moved the sympathies of the officer, who said to him, "This vessel is
crowded with people; it wont do for us to be short of water, and I will
put the water in your charge, and you must not let any passenger, or
even the steward, have any except according to the regulations, and if
you attend to that properly no other services will be required of you."
That took him off of the anxious seat and put him on the solid. In all
his adversities he never thought of turning back. That commanded my
esteem. His attentions to me, when sick, aroused my sympathies for him,
which good action on his part saved him. Of one thousand passengers
desirous of getting on that steamer, and there was room but for sixty on
the day of its departure; his chance looked the most hopeless, being
penniless, but he was one of the fortunate ones, wh