ter with a whale--Sunken
treasure--The schoolmaster--The merchant--The good people at the
village--A pleasant visit.

July 23rd, 1888, was the day, as I have said, on which we sailed from
Rio de Janeiro.

Meeting with head winds and light withal, through the day we made but
little progress; and finally, when night came on, we anchored twenty
miles east of Rio Heads, near the shore. Long, rolling seas rocked us as
they raced by, then, dashing their great bodies against defying rocks,
made music by which we slept that night. But a trouble unthought of
before came up in Garfield's mind before going to his bunk; "Mamma,"
cried he, as our little bark rose and fell on the heavy waves, tumbling
the young sailor about from side to side in the small quarters while he
knelt seriously at his evening devotion, "mamma, this boat isn't big
enough to pray in!" But this difficulty was gotten over in time, and
Garfield learned to watch as well as to pray on the voyage, and full of
faith that all would be well, laid him down nights and slept as
restfully as any Christian on sea or land.

By daylight of the second day we were again underweigh, beating to the
eastward against the old head wind and head sea. On the following night
we kept her at it, and the next day made Cape Frio where we anchored
near the entrance to a good harbour.

Time from Rio, two days; distance, 70 miles.

The wind and tide being adverse, compelled us to wait outside for a
favourable change. While comfortably anchored at this place, a huge
whale, nosing about, came up under the canoe, giving us a toss and a
great scare. We were at dinner when it happened. The meal, it is
needless to say, was finished without dessert. The great sea
animal--fifty to sixty feet long--circling around our small craft,
looked terribly big. He was so close to me twice, as he swam round and
round the canoe, that I could have touched him either time with a
paddle. His flukes stirring the water like a steamer propeller appeared
alarmingly close and powerful!--and what an ugly mouth the monster had!
Well, we expected instant annihilation. The fate of the stout whale-ship
_Essex_ came vividly before me. The voyage of the _Liberdade_, I
thought, was about ended, and I looked about for pieces of bamboo on
which to land my wife and family. Just then, however, to the infinite
relief of all of us, the leviathan moved off, without doing us much
harm, having felt satisfied, perhaps,