air brought new
life to the wretches about me, and a species of cheerfulness was
quickly manifested. Bad as the food was we ate it gladly, nor did the
memory of the dead, already laid out on the main deck, long depress
us. Why should we mourn for them? We scarcely knew any among them by
name, and, facing the uncertainty of our own fate, each man secretly
felt that these had possibly found the easier way. Our own misery was
now greater than theirs. So we hung on to whatever would help us to
keep erect, and ate the food given us like famished animals. Rough and
threatening as the surroundings still were, I was seaman enough to
realize that the backbone of the storm had broken, and so rejoiced
when the skipper ordered sail set. In a few moments the brig was once
again headed on a westerly course, and riding the heavy seas much more
steadily.

We were permitted to remain on deck scarcely more than an hour, and
during that time only a very few passengers made their appearance aft.
Although watching eagerly I perceived no flutter of a skirt in the
wind, but the Spanish looking man emerged from below, and clung to the
rail for several minutes before we were ordered from deck. He spoke
with the Captain, pointing and gesticulating, and the few detached
words blown to me on the wind were sufficient to convince me that the
fellow knew ships and the sea. I had thought him a mere dandy, but now
saw in him harder stuff, even getting close enough to learn that he
had visited America before, and possessed knowledge of its shores and
currents. Ay, and he spoke English well, with never pause for a word,
even to terms of seamanship a bit obscure.

The next few days, while uneventful, sufficed to make our discipline
complete, obedience being roughly enforced by blows and oaths. At
first a spirit of resistance flamed high, but the truly desperate
among us were few, and without leadership, while the majority were
already thoroughly cowed by months of imprisonment. Left to
themselves the more reckless and criminal were soon obliged to yield
to force, so that nothing more serious resulted than loud talk and
threats. The hatch above remained open, but carefully guarded night
and day, while we were permitted on deck for air and exercise only in
squads of ten, two hours out of every twenty-four. This alone served
to break the dread monotony of the voyage, for while we almost
constantly encountered baffling head winds, no other storm of any
mag