commodation, manned by a captain
and crew of five sailors.

On Thursday, March 19th, they sailed from Gibraltar. As they neared the
Spanish side, carrying the American flag, a Spanish gunboat put out and
overhauled them, under the impression they were tobacco smugglers. It
was some time before the officials could be made to understand the
object of the voyage; but finally allowed them to proceed. They arrived
off Tarifa at eleven o'clock at night, and lay to for a couple of hours,
when, as the captain of the felucca refused to start across without
clearance papers, they landed and went into the old, Moorish looking
town and woke up one sleepy official after another; but it was not
until seven o'clock in the morning that clearance was procured.

The danger of this undertaking was by no means confined to sharks alone;
the wind and currents are usually variable. Through the middle of the
strait a current may be considered to set constantly to the eastward,
but on each side, both flood and ebb tides extend to a quarter of a mile
or to two miles from the shore, according to the wind and weather, and
are consequently very irregular.

At 7:30 o'clock Boyton had donned his dress and was ready to take the
water. For the first time in the history of his voyages he took the
unusual precaution against sharks, of screwing sharp steel sword blades
on each end of his double bladed paddle. With these he felt confident
that he could stand up in the water and rip open any shark that
approached him. He also carried a large dagger fastened to his wrist. He
jumped into the sea amidst the enthusiastic cheering of quite a crowd
that had assembled on the beach to see him start. He paddled out to a
rock close by Tarifa lighthouse, said to be the extreme southern point
of Europe, which he touched, turned and waved an adieu to Spain. He was
then fairly launched on his journey, steering southwest in a smooth sea
and calm weather. He was in excellent spirits and fully confident of
success. The southwestern course was taken as he expected to meet the
current setting eastward, which would carry him toward Malabata,
the point he determined to make his port of destination. His
calculation, however, proved to be false, for the current turned out to
be setting from the opposite direction and therefore gradually
conveyed him toward the westward.

Shortly after 8 o'clock Paul was singing as he paddled along and came
very near runni