the cigars were of inferior quality, the owner of the
Clarissa bought the lot at the rate of three dollars per thousand, and
put them on board the brig. They were sold in Maranham as "Cuban cigars"
for fifteen dollars a thousand, and on the return of the brig the custom
house handed over the debenture three dollars and a half a thousand!
This was what may be called a neat speculation, certainly a SAFE one, as
the return duty alone would have covered the cost and expenses!

In the river, opposite the city, the current was rapid, especially
during the ebb tide, and sharks were numerous. We caught three or four
heavy and voracious ones with a shark-hook while lying at anchor. Only a
few days before we arrived a negro child was carried off by one of these
monsters, while bathing near the steps of the public landing-place, and
devoured.

A few days before we left port I sculled ashore in the yawl, bearing a
message from the mate to the captain. It was nearly low water, the
flood tide having just commenced, and I hauled the boat on the flats,
calculating to be absent but a few minutes. Having been delayed by
business, when I approached the spot where I left the boat I found, to
my great mortification, that the boat had floated with the rise of the
tide, and was borne by a fresh breeze some twenty or thirty yards from
the shore. My chagrin may be imagined when I beheld the boat drifting
merrily up the river, at the rate of three or four knots an hour!

I stood on the shore and gazed wistfully on the departing yawl. There
was no boat in the vicinity, and only one mode of arresting the progress
of the fugitive. I almost wept through vexation. I hesitated one moment
on account of the sharks, then plunged into the river, and with rapid
and strong strokes swam towards the boat. I was soon alongside, seized
the gunwale, and, expecting every moment that a shark would seize me by
the leg, by a convulsive movement threw myself into the boat.

As I sculled back towards the place from which the boat had drifted,
Captain Page came down to the water side. He had witnessed the scene
from a balcony, and administered a severe rebuke for my foolhardiness in
swimming off into the river, particularly during the young flood, which
brought the voracious monsters in from the sea.

On our passage to Maranham, and during a portion of our stay in that
port, the utmost harmony prevailed on board. The men, although kept
constantly at work, were nev