, making every effort to handle the ship a hazardous one. For
three days we battled against the elements and then we came in contact
with ice floes. Once our position was so perilous that the Captain
ordered the boats provisioned and ready to be lowered when the vessel
should be crushed in the ice. By skillful maneuvering we escaped from
the ice floes and had a pleasant day or two in smoother seas.

It was night and I was standing by the taffrail, when suddenly a giant
specter seemed to come up from out of the sea, bearing directly down
upon us. Her great lantern swung in a glow in a fog, by which I
discerned moving objects.

"Collision! Collision!" I shouted at the top of my voice. The cry was
taken up by the sailors, and ere it had died away there was the
crashing of timbers, falling spars and the shouts of men.

We had been struck a glancing blow abaft midships but the damage was
not serious enough to sink us. The other vessel, which proved to be
the brig "Rapid," belonging to the same company at Aberdeen, stood off
until its crew ascertained the extent of our damage, then sailed away
in the darkness.

A month's delay on the docks at Aberdeen repairing damages, and we
were again on the high seas bound for the ports of South America.

When off the West Indies the sky suddenly became overcast, and we were
soon overtaken by a hurricane. The captain saw it coming and prepared
for it, yet when it took the ship it roared and laid her down so that
I thought she would never get up again. All that day and night we had
heavy squalls, and by morning the gale was still increasing. Birds of
sea and land came on board. Driven by the winds, they dashed
themselves down upon the deck without offering to stir until picked
up, and when let go they would not leave the ship, but endeavored to
hide from the wind. By ten o'clock at night the storm had spent its
fury, and when I went to my bunk I found it full of water. With the
straining of the ship, the seams had begun to leak. I was surprised to
note among the ship's crew that the most swaggering, swearing bullies
in fine weather were now the most meek and mild-mannered of men when
death was staring them in the face.

[Illustration: WRECK OF THE SPANISH SLOOP SEVILLE. (Page 30)]

Then followed days when the sea was smooth as glass. Our white sails
hung idly beneath the scorching skies. Sea weed floated on the oily
surface, as, day by day, we lay seemingly motionless on the bosom o