172 MYSTIC ISLES 



wind is from the southeast. There is httle Hght. The 

 sea is high, and everything is in a smother. We took 

 down the topsails and furled the spanker. The wind 

 was getting up, and the call came for all hands on deck. 

 We had watch and watch until then. That 's four hours 

 off and four hours on. When the watch below left 

 their bunks, that was the last of our sleep on the El 

 Dorado. A gale was blowing by midnight. We were 

 working all the time, taking in sail and making all snug. 

 There was plenty of water on deck. Schooner was 

 bumping hard on the waves and making water through 

 her seams. We took the pumps for a spell. 



"We had no sleep next day. In the morning we set 

 all sails in a lull, but took them down again quickly, be- 

 cause the wind shifted to the northwest, and a big gale 

 came on. Now began trouble with the cargo. We had 

 the hold filled with lumber, planks and such, and on the 

 deck we had a terrible load of big logs. These were 

 to hold up the walls and roofs in the mines of Chile. 

 Many of them were thirty-six feet long, and very big 

 around. They were the trunks of very big trees. 

 They were piled very high, and the whole of them was 

 fastened by chains to keep them from rolling or being 

 broken loose by seas. In moving about the ship we 

 had to walk on this rough heap of logs, which lifted 

 above the rails. They were hard to walk on in a per- 

 fectly smooth sea, and with the way the El Dorado 

 rolled and pitched, we could hardly keep from being 

 thrown into the ocean. 



"This second day of the big storm, with the wind from 

 the northeast, the El Dorado began to leak badly again. 

 All hands took spells at the pumps. We were at work 



