current
so much in her favor that she outdid herself. I was glad to have a
sailor of Howard's experience on board to witness her performance of
sailing with no living being at the helm. Howard sat near the binnacle
and watched the compass while the sloop held her course so steadily
that one would have declared that the card was nailed fast. Not a
quarter of a point did she deviate from her course. My old friend had
owned and sailed a pilot-sloop on the river for many years, but this
feat took the wind out of his sails at last, and he cried, "I'll be
stranded on Chico Bank if ever I saw the like of it!" Perhaps he had
never given his sloop a chance to show what she could do. The point I
make for the _Spray_ here, above all other points, is that she sailed
in shoal water and in a strong current, with other difficult and
unusual conditions. Captain Howard took all this into account.

In all the years away from his native home Howard had not forgotten
the art of making fish chowders; and to prove this he brought along
some fine rockfish and prepared a mess fit for kings. When the savory
chowder was done, chocking the pot securely between two boxes on the
cabin floor, so that it could not roll over, we helped ourselves and
swapped yarns over it while the _Spray_ made her own way through the
darkness on the river. Howard told me stories about the Fuegian
cannibals as she reeled along, and I told him about the pilot of the
_Pinta_ steering my vessel through the storm off the coast of the
Azores, and that I looked for him at the helm in a gale such as this.
I do not charge Howard with superstition,--we are none of us
superstitious,--but when I spoke about his returning to Montevideo on
the _Spray_ he shook his head and took a steam-packet instead.

I had not been in Buenos Aires for a number of years. The place where
I had once landed from packets, in a cart, was now built up with
magnificent docks. Vast fortunes had been spent in remodeling the
harbor; London bankers could tell you that. The port captain, after
assigning the _Spray_ a safe berth, with his compliments, sent me word
to call on him for anything I might want while in port, and I felt
quite sure that his friendship was sincere. The sloop was well cared
for at Buenos Aires; her dockage and tonnage dues were all free, and
the yachting fraternity of the city welcomed her with a good will. In
town I found things not so greatly changed as about the docks, and I
soon f