nd stormy petrels all about. A terrible place. Ah! by Jove,
what a howling and what cracks you get there! The hurricane wants no
help. That's the place for holding on to the sheer-rails; for reefing
topsails. That's where you take in the mainsail, and fly the jibsail; or
take in the jibsail and try the stormjib. Gusts upon gusts! And then,
sometimes four, five, or six days of scudding under bare poles. Often
only a rag of canvas left. What a dance! Squalls enough to make a
three-master skip like a flea. I saw once a cabin-boy hanging on to the
jibboom of an English brig, the _True Blue_, knocked, jibboom and all,
to ten thousand nothings. Fellows are swept into the air there like
butterflies. I saw the second mate of the _Revenue_, a pretty schooner,
knocked from under the forecross-tree, and killed dead. I have had my
sheer-rails smashed, and come out with all my sails in ribbons. Frigates
of fifty guns make water like wicker baskets. And the damnable coast!
Nothing can be imagined more dangerous. Rocks all jagged-edged. You
come, by and by, to Port Famine. There it's worse and worse. The worst
seas I ever saw in my life. The devil's own latitudes. All of a sudden
you spy the words, painted in red, 'Post Office.'"

"What do you mean, Captain Gertrais?"

"I mean, Captain Clubin, that immediately after doubling Point Anne you
see, on a rock, a hundred feet high, a great post with a barrel
suspended to the top. This barrel is the letter-box. The English sailors
must needs go and write up there 'Post Office.' What had they to do with
it? It is the ocean post-office. It isn't the property of that worthy
gentleman, the King of England. The box is common to all. It belongs to
every flag. _Post Office!_ there's a crack-jaw word for you. It produces
an effect on me as if the devil had suddenly offered me a cup of tea. I
will tell you now how the postal arrangements are carried out. Every
vessel which passes sends to the post a boat with despatches. A vessel
coming from the Atlantic, for instance, sends there its letters for
Europe; and a ship coming from the Pacific, its letters for New Zealand
or California. The officer in command of the boat puts his packet into
the barrel, and takes away any packet he finds there. You take charge of
these letters, and the ship which comes after you takes charge of yours.
As ships are always going to and fro, the continent whence you come is
that to which I am going. I carry your letters; you