There Are
No Umbrellas, And No Sheds To Go Under, At Sea.
While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little brig
drifting by us, hove to under her fore topsail double reefed;
and she glided by like a phantom.
Not a word was spoken, and we
saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel. Toward morning the
captain put his head out of the companion-way and told the second
mate, who commanded our watch, to look out for a change of wind,
which usually followed a calm and heavy rain; and it was well
that he did; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the vessel
lost her steerage-way, and the rain ceased. We hauled up the
trysail and courses, squared the after yards, and waited for the
change, which came in a few minutes, with a vengeance, from the
north-west, the opposite point of the compass. Owing to our
precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran before the wind
with square yards. The captain coming on deck, we braced up a
little and stood back for our anchorage. With the change of wind
came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind moderated into
the light steady breeze, which blows down the coast the greater
part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called a
trade-wind. The sun came up bright, and we set royals, skysails,
and studding-sails, and were under fair way for Santa Barbara.
The little Loriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight; but we
saw nothing of the Ayacucho.
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