l tightly furled in
numerous curling papers that stood out from his head like spikes. On
great occasions, such as Sundays and wonderful deliverances from storms,
he used to unfurl his kinky locks which seemed ample enough then to fill
a bushel basket.

After a delay of a week or ten days in the harbor, owing to head winds
or inclement weather we set sail; and I remember well that the pilot,
Fowler by name, as he was about to leave the vessel, throwing his leg
over the bulwarks, said in his gruff voice to our skipper, "I will give
you twenty-eight days to the Straits."

There is little to write about the trip on the Atlantic side of the
voyage more than it was very monotonous, so much so that both Aiken and
myself for some slight relief used occasionally to help the captain
"take the sun" at noon, and in this way we both became more or less
expert in navigation. It was also interesting to watch the sailors in
their various duties and pleasures; and from them we learned to splice
ropes and to tie fancy knots. We learned, too, the words of command in
proper sequence, as given by the captain, when he ordered the men to
tack ship or to wear ship, all which was of great interest to us.
Occasionally in good weather we used to take our trick at the wheel in
order to break the monotony of the voyage. Sometimes we would catch a
porpoise, of which the liver would give us a taste of fresh meat and
remind us of home. Off Cape Trafalgar we sailed over the waters which
floated the English fleet when Nelson fought his famous fight. I
recollect the first glimpse we had of Cape Spartel, a point of land in
the northwest corner of the African continent, overlooking the Straits,
which we made early in the morning of March 16, my birthday. With a
head-wind it took two days to beat into the Mediterranean, where we had
many calms and much bad weather. At one time we came near being wrecked
in a gale off Cape de Gato on the southern coast of Spain, but generally
we were cruising along the north coast of Africa, within a few leagues
of land, as our sailing course was dependent upon the wind. At times we
could see buildings and villages on the shore, and then would sink them
behind as we sailed away.

The incident to which I have already alluded, occurred in the latter
part of March, off Cape Tres Forcas on the Barbary Coast. One afternoon,
as we were sailing along at low speed with little wind, two or three
leagues from land, we spied two lat