oarders.

It would have delayed us too long to tow the vessel into the nearest
port, 375 miles distant, or we might have claimed the salvage money,
estimated by the experts at 1,500_l_. She was too low in the water for
it to be possible for us, with our limited appliances, to blow her up;
so we were obliged to leave her floating about as a derelict, a
fertile source of danger to all ships crossing her track. With her
buoyant cargo, and with the trade winds slowly wafting her to smoother
seas, it may probably be some years before she breaks up. I only hope
that no good ship may run full speed on to her, some dark night, for
the 'Carolina' would prove almost as formidable an obstacle as a
sunken rock.

Tom was now signalling for us to go on board again, and for a few
minutes I was rather afraid we should have had a little trouble in
getting the men off, as their excitement had not decreased; but after
a trifling delay and some rather rough play amongst themselves, they
became steady again, and we returned to the yacht with our various
prizes.

A 'Mother Carey's chicken' hovered round the wreck while we were on
board, and followed us to the 'Sunbeam;' and although a flat calm and
a heavy swell prevailed at the time, we all looked upon our visitor as
the harbinger of a breeze. In this instance, at least, the well-known
sailor's superstition was justified; for, before the evening, the wind
sprang up, and 'fires out and sails up' was the order of the day. We
were soon bowling merrily along at the rate of seven knots an hour,
while a clear starlight night and a heavy dew gave promise of a fine
morrow.

_Friday, July 14th_.--We still have a light wind, right aft,
accompanied by a heavy roll from the westward, which makes it
impossible to sit anywhere with comfort, and difficult even to read.
By 6 a.m. the sun had become very powerful, though its heat was
tempered by the breeze, which gradually increased throughout the day,
until, having set all our fore-and-aft canvas, as well as our square
sails, we glided steadily along, in delightful contrast to the uneasy
motion of the morning, and of the past few days. Under the
awning--with the most heavenly blue sky above, and the still darker
clear blue sea beneath, stretching away in gentle ripples as far as
the eye could reach--it was simply perfect.

Our little party get on extremely well together, though a week ago
they were strangers to each other. We are all so busy that we