ARRIVAL AT SISAL. 



13 



On the twenty-seventh we furled sails off the port 

 of Sisal. Five vessels were at anchor, an extraor- 

 dinary circumstance for Sisal, and fortunate for us, 

 because otherwise, as our captain had never been 

 there before, though carefully looking for it, we 

 might not have been able to find it. Our anchorage 

 ground was on the open coast, two or three miles 

 from land, at which distance it was necessary to 

 keep, lest we should be driven ashore in case of a 

 norther. Captain Scholefield, in fact, before he had 

 discharged his cargo, was obliged to slip his cables 

 and put to sea, and did not get back to his anchor- 

 age ground in nine days. 



It was only four o'clock in the afternoon, but, by 

 the regulations of the port, no passenger could land 

 until the vessel had been visited by the health and 

 custom-house officers. We looked out till dark, and 

 long after the moon rose, but no notice whatever 

 was taken of us, and, with no very amiable feeHngs 

 toward the lazy officials, we turned in again on 

 board. 



In the morning, when we went on deck, we saw 

 anchored under our stern the brig Lucinda, in which 

 we had thought of taking passage ; she had sailed 

 from New- York four days after we did, and arrived 

 during the night. 



Very soon we saw coming off toward us the sep- 

 arate canoas of the health and custom-house offi- 

 cers. We were boarded by a very little man with 

 a very big mustache, who was seasick before he 



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