ON HOARD THE "AURORA" 151 



hoard; it made some of us foci rather uncomfortable. 

 This powder, in all one hundred and sixty-two kegs of 

 twenty-five pounds each, was enough to blow ten liners 

 into splinters. It was part of the freight which I men- 

 tioned in letter No. 10, as being ready for shipment. 

 Though 1 knew the nature of the cargo then as well as I 

 do today, I withheld the information from you hecause 

 you would otherwise have had powder-dreams day and 

 night, and would, perhaps, have pictured to yourselves 

 my fiery ascension into Heaven, somewhat alter the meth- 

 od of the prophet Elias, of Holy Writ. The worst of it 

 is that these kegs of powder were knocked about wherev- 

 er there appeared a little space between the other freight, 

 principally under the cabin and front-steerage— two 

 places where light and smoking is a constant menace, 

 particularly on account of the cracks and holes in the 

 flooring, through which the kegs may be seen, and, in 

 places, even lie felt. As you may fancy, this challenged, 

 at first, a good deal of my courage and caused me to think 

 of Bontekoe, Cook and the Flying Dutchman, especially 

 when the sailors commenced to throw those kegs around 

 carelessly, whenever they were looking for tools, iron, 

 chains, or whatever they happened to be in immediate 

 need of, and that generally finds its way into the cable- 

 hatch. Even right near the fire-place one can see ten to 

 fifteen barrels piled up at times, simply to temporarily 

 facilitate the search of something or other in the hatch 

 below. Fortunately for the sensitive looker-on this pro- 

 verbial carelessness of the tars has a contagious and 

 soothing effect upon the many, as one hardly thinks of 

 disastrous possibilities after a while, though we might 

 have been sent on a flight through space more than once, 

 and without the least warning or preparation for the 

 journey. There would not have been as much as a de- 

 tailed report, though the facts, if known, might have 

 caused more excitement than did the appearance of the 

 Lord in the burning bush, in the ancient Hebrew days. 

 It is well-known thai the apprentices on our men-of-war 

 handle the powder-kegs, which caused those hoys to he 



