off his head; the cook, as he looked out of his caboose, had
his teeth driven down his throat, and one of the boys, who was sent on
deck to see how the wind was (for we were obliged to batten down and get
below), had his eyelids blown so far back that it took all the ship's
company to haul them down again. You don't know what a gale of wind is
till you have seen it."

Some loud shouts of laughter were heard outside the berth, but Mr
Johnson, without heeding them, continued:

"But, by the bye, I was describing my voyage round the Horn in the Lady
Stiggins, and now I am coming to the melancholy part of my history. No
sooner had we recovered our topsail than the gale abated, and nothing of
moment occurred till we hauled up to the westward to round the Horn.
For some days we had light winds and fine weather, but those who have
doubled that Cape know well that it blows there pretty hard at times,
and we soon had to learn this to our cost. Soon after noonday it came
on to blow, and such a sea got up as I had never seen before. That was
a sea. Sometimes we were at the top of one wave, while my pet shark,
who had faithfully followed us, would be in the trough below, looking no
larger than a minnow in a millstream, and sometimes when we were at the
bottom we could see him looking lovingly down upon us, high above our
topgallant-mast-head. At last we were driven back right in upon the
coast of Patagonia, and had we not found a harbour in which to take
shelter, we should have lost the ship and our lives.

"The land of Patagonia is bleak and barren, and, as you all know, the
few scattered inhabitants make up for the scarcity of their numbers by
their personal stature, for they are, without exception, the tallest
people I have ever met. I felt quite a pigmy alongside them. They have
large rolling eyes, long shaggy hair, and thick snub noses: indeed, they
are as ugly a race as I ever set eyes on. Perhaps, for certain reasons,
I might have been prejudiced, but of that you shall judge.

"We anchored the brig in a snug cove, where she lay completely sheltered
from the tempest which raged without, and we were thus enabled to go
ashore to procure wood and water, of which we stood much in need. For
two days we saw no signs of inhabitants, and thus we incautiously
strolled about without arms in our hands to stretch our legs. I was
always of an inquisitive turn, fond of exploring strange countries; so
one day, having parted fro