TERRIBLE DAYS AT SEA. 



57 



until the sea and the rocks and the vast city seemed literally glittering with sunlight. One 

 long look back to the happy home of the last six years, to the home still of the husband 

 and brothers obliged to remain behind, and at last I had only the sea that parted us to look 

 at through my tears. Our friends had seen us set sail in what seemed a gallant ship. It 

 had been chosen from all others as the one to send us home in for its show of perfectness. 

 There were men in San Francisco who knew that the ship was unseaworthy (having been 

 frightfully strained in her last voyage to China), and that she was in no fit condition to be 



" THE PASSENGERS WERE LET DOWN BY ROPES " (p. 58). 



trusted with the lives of helpless women and children, yet they let us sail without a word of 

 warning/' 



The dreaded Horn had been easily rounded in good weather, and on the evening of 

 January 4th, 1862, they had been eighty-six days out; in ten more they expected to be in 

 England. The sailors had predicted a stormy night, and a terrific gale followed closely on 

 that prophecy. The wind increased in fury, and the ship rolled till those on board were 

 often thrown from their feet. That night a child was born on board, and the kindly lady 

 passengers did all in their power for the poor mother. 



" At dawn," says Mrs. Murray, " taking my little girl by the hand, I went on deck. The 

 storm had in some measure abated, but the sea looked black and sullen, and the swell of the 

 vast heavy waves seemed to mock our frailty. The sailors had been up all night, and were 

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