rackers!

He was much quieter, too, for he did not swear a bit, as he would have
done before, at the man at the wheel, who, startled by his coming softly
up the companion without previous notice, when he fancied he was lying
in his cot, let the ship fall off so that she almost broached-to, in
such a way as almost to carry her spars by the board!

No, he did not utter a single harsh word.

"Steady thaar!" was all he called out; "kip her full an' by, an' steer
ez naar north ez ye ken!"

This was about the beginning of July, and we had from then bright
weather, with westerly and nor'-west winds all the way up the Pacific,
past the island of Juan Fernandez, which we saw like a haze of green in
the distance.

After this, making to cross the Equator for the second time--our first
time being in the Atlantic Doldrums--somewhere between the meridians 100
degrees to 102 degrees, we proceeded on steadily northward, picking up
the south-east trade-winds in about latitude 20 degrees South, when
nearly opposite Arica on the chart, although, of course, out of sight of
land, being more than a couple of hundred leagues away from the nearest
part of the coast.

In about twenty days' time we got near the Equator, when we met with
variable winds and calms, while a strong indraught sucked us out of our
course into the Bay of Panama.

The temperature just then grew very hot, and the captain, taking to
drinking again, soon recovered his spirits and his temper, which had
latterly grown so smooth and equable that we hardly knew him for the
same man.

In a short space, however, the rum fully restored him to his old
quarrelsome self, and he and the first-mate, Mr Flinders, had an awful
row one night, when the skipper threatened to send the mate forward and
promote Jan Steenbock in his place. Captain Snaggs had never forgiven
him for the cowardice and want of sailorly instinct he displayed at the
time of the alarm of fire in the forepeak; and the fact also of Mr
Flinders having lain for two days drunk in his bunk after their
jollification on rounding Cape Horn, did not tend to impress the skipper
any the more strongly in his favour.

I remember the evening well.

It was on the 28th July.

We were becalmed, I recollect; but, in spite of this, a strong set of
tide, or some unknown current, was carrying us, in a west-nor'-west
direction, away out of the Bay of Panama, at the mouth of which we had
been rolling and roasting in the broil