394 



INCIDENTS OF TRAVEL. 



we found ourselves in such comfortable quarters on 

 board this brig. We had an afternoon squall, but we 

 considered ourselves merely passengers, and, with a good 

 vessel, master, and crew, laughed at a distant bungo 

 crawling close along the shore, and for the first time 

 feared that the voyage would end too soon. Perhaps 

 no captain ever had passengers so perfectly contented 

 under storm or calm. Oh you who cross the Atlantic 

 in packet-ships, complaining of discomforts, and threat- 

 en to publish the captain because the porter does not 

 hold out, may you one day be caught on board a bun- 

 go loaded with logwood ! 



The wear and tear of our wardrobe was manifest to 

 the most indifferent observer : and Mrs. Fensley, pity- 

 ing our ragged condition, sewed on our buttons, darn- 

 ed, patched, and mended us, and put us in order for 

 another expedition. On the third morning Captain 

 Fensley told us we had passed Campeachy during the 

 night, and, if the wind held, would reach Sisal that day. 

 At eight o'clock we came in sight of the long low coast, 

 and moving steadily toward it, at a little before dark 

 anchored off the port, about two miles from the shore. 

 One brig was lying there, a Spanish trader, bound to 

 Havana, and the only vessel in port. The anchorage 

 is an open roadstead outside of the breakers, which is 

 considered perfectly safe except during a northeast 

 storm, when Spanish vessels always slip their cables 

 and stand out to sea. 



In the uncertainty whether what we were going to 

 see was worth the trouble, and the greater uncertainty 

 of a conveyance when we wanted it, it was trying to 

 leave a good vessel which in twenty days might carry 

 us home. Nevertheless, we made the exertion. It was 

 dusk when we left the vessel. "We landed at the end 



