THE OCEAN VOYAGE 133 



parts. As the vessel was laboring' heavily through the 

 hollow sea, and the rain being much in evidence, it was 

 quite a difficult task to bring this heavy yard in place and 

 in ship shape condition for sendee, aud night had already 

 set iu when the last finishing touches permitted its re- 

 newed use. The fore topsail was set once more. On 

 Wednesday, the first of October, as early as one o'clock in 

 the morning, there came a heavy rainstorm which de- 

 stroyed our jib for the second time; as soon as the sun 

 had risen this was replaced by a brand new sail and 

 again set agoing. Toward evening "we again made our 

 bill without consulting the host" and this happened quite 

 often during our voyage. We were steering toward the 

 coast, thinking that the next morning would find us close 

 to the Bay of Corral, which in reality is the harbor of 

 Valdivia. But we were once more to be disappointed as 

 the wind turned North and continued thus with steady 

 showers until about noon of Saturday, the fourth, which 

 compelled us to cruise once more. We were so thor- 

 oughly disappointed at not seeing the Harbor of Corral 

 as we expected, that neither the sight of three immense 

 whales nor the reappearance of a few flying fish were 

 able to dissipate our bad humor. But we had not seen 

 the worst. About one o'clock we were once more in the 

 midst of a heavy Northwest storm, bringing with it hail, 

 thunder and lightning. As quickly as possible the jib, 

 main, top and mizzen sails were secured and the vessel 

 went West-Southwest. 



Hardly had we changed the course when lightning 

 struck the water about 150 to 200 feet from our ship side, 

 followed by heavy thunder bolts. In the evening we had 

 lightning in the West. Though the storm abated during 

 Sunday, there was little change in the air until Tuesday, 

 the seventh. We were all in bad humor. It was really 

 enough to vex anyone. During a whole week we had 

 been close to our destination, and yet we had never made 

 more than a day's journey and had even seen land Men- 

 day morning at nine o'clock, some three miles away. 

 About five miles from Cape Carlos there was a high 



