, leaving his return freight at Wainiea for another trip. I
accepted the same through Mr. Bent, and we sailed for Honolulu on the
evening of Tuesday, December 20, and arrived at Honolulu at eleven A.M.,
December 24, bringing with me the effects saved as aforementioned. I
went, on landing, immediately to the United States Consul's office,
where I saw him and the Minister President and told to them my story.

(_Note._ The reader may remember the incident I related as occurring
at the time we were provisioning the gig; the discovery that the
boiled rice had fermented and the hasty substitution of the dessicated
potatoes. Halford was emphatic to me in the assertion that the potato
was the preserver of their lives and that mixed with water it
constituted their only food during the last week of their sufferings.
The dessicated potato was at that time a part of the Navy ration. It
was also called "evaporated," and was prepared by thoroughly drying
the potato and coarsely grinding it. In appearance it resembles a very
coarse meal.)

* * * * *

Halford has told me of several remarkable incidents which happened
during the voyage of the gig and which, although not considered
essential in his official statement, would be lifelong memories to
him.

[Illustration: WILLIAM HALFORD
The only survivor of the gig's crew. (Now a retired chief gunner
in the Navy.)]

Of one of these he says--and I give his own words: "We were scudding
before a gale of wind under a reefed square sail. A nasty sea was
running at the time. I was standing in the after hatch steering; had
the reeving string of the cover that was nailed around the combings
drawn tight under my armpits to keep out the sea as it washed over the
boat, when I felt a shock. The boat almost capsized, but the next sea
lifted her over. I looked astern and saw a great log forty or fifty
feet long and four or five feet in diameter, water-logged and just
awash. We had jumped clean over it. It was a case of touch and go with
us."

Of another incident he says: "One night I had relieved Peter Francis
at the tiller and he had crawled forward on deck. Somehow or other he
got overboard; luckily we had a strong fishing-line trailing astern
all the voyage, but never got as much as a bite until it caught
Francis and we got him on board again. It was a bright moonlight
night."

Of another happening he says: "Then, when our provisions had run out
en