ing-vessel.
Captain Mitchell of the 'Hornet' was along; also the only passengers
the 'Hornet' had carried. These were two young men from Stamford,
Connecticut--brothers: Samuel and Henry Ferguson. The 'Hornet' was a
clipper of the first class and a fast sailer; the young men's quarters
were roomy and comfortable, and were well stocked with books, and also
with canned meats and fruits to help out the ship-fare with; and when
the ship cleared from New York harbour in the first week of January
there was promise that she would make quick and pleasant work of the
fourteen or fifteen thousand miles in front of her. As soon as the cold
latitudes were left behind and the vessel entered summer weather, the
voyage became a holiday picnic. The ship flew southward under a cloud of
sail which needed no attention, no modifying or change of any kind, for
days together. The young men read, strolled the ample deck, rested and
drowsed in the shade of the canvas, took their meals with the captain;
and when the day was done they played dummy whist with him till
bed-time. After the snow and ice and tempests of the Horn, the ship
bowled northward into summer weather again, and the trip was a picnic
once more.

Until the early morning of the 3rd of May. Computed position of the ship
112 degrees 10 minutes longitude, latitude 2 degrees above the equator;
no wind, no sea--dead calm; temperature of the atmosphere, tropical,
blistering, unimaginable by one who has not been roasted in it. There
was a cry of fire. An unfaithful sailor had disobeyed the rules and
gone into the booby-hatch with an open light to draw some varnish from a
cask. The proper result followed, and the vessel's hours were numbered.

There was not much time to spare, but the captain made the most of it.
The three boats were launched--long-boat and two quarter-boats. That
the time was very short and the hurry and excitement considerable is
indicated by the fact that in launching the boats a hole was stove in
the side of one of them by some sort of collision, and an oar driven
through the side of another. The captain's first care was to have four
sick sailors brought up and placed on deck out of harm's way--among them
a 'Portyghee.' This man had not done a day's work on the voyage, but had
lain in his hammock four months nursing an abscess. When we were taking
notes in the Honolulu hospital and a sailor told this to Mr. Burlingame,
the third mate, who was lying near, raised his