S4 Porter's Voyage 



bled to catch an abundance of fish, which no doubt follow them 

 to get the small barnacles and grass with which the logs were 

 plentifully supplied. Nothing can exceed the miserable con- 

 struction of these floats. Eight logs of from twenty-five to thirty 

 feet in length, with the bark scarcely taken off, and three pieces 

 lashed across with a kind of grass rope, to form the floor ; each 

 side is formed of two logs, laid one on another, and the deck is 

 composed of rough logs laid crosswise, and projecting from four 

 to six feet beyond the sides, and all lashed (though very inse- 

 curely) together. Forward and aft are some pieces of board 

 from three to four feet in length, stuck down betM^een the logs 

 forming the floor, and serving as a substitute for a keel. A mast 

 is stepped in between the logs of the floor, and, instead of part- 

 ners, secured by a lashing from side to side, and having the ad- 

 ditional security of a stay and a shroud, which is shifted always 

 to the weather side, and to this is hoisted a large lug-sail made 

 of cotton. Their ground tackling consists of some bark, twisted 

 in the form of a rope, which serves as a cable, and a large stone 

 with a stick lashed to it, of about eighteen inches long, for a 

 stock, serves as an anchor ; she is steered by a paddle, carries 

 her cargo on the logs forming the deck, and has, as a substitute for 

 a caboose, a small quantity of dirt thrown on the logs that project 

 beyond the sides forward. The crews appear equally as miserable 

 in their appearance as the machine they navigate ; and it excited 

 no little surprise in our minds when we were informed, that the 

 navigation from Guayaquil to Lima, a distance of about six hun- 

 dred miles, against a constant head wind, and frequently rapid 

 current, should be very common with those rafts. This passage 

 takes them two months ; and there can be no stronger proof of 

 the mildness of this ocean, so justly, in this part, deserving the 

 name of the Pacific, than the fact, that the loss of those vessels, 

 frail as they are, is very uncommon. 



I now shaped my course for the Gallipagos Islands, directing 

 the Barclay to steer W.N.W. by compass, in order that we might 

 fall in with the latitude to the eastward of them, intimating to 

 her commander that I should, from time to time, so vary from 

 this course as to look over as much ground in our way as possi- 

 ble. This method we put in practice until we made Chatham 

 Island, which was on the morning of the 17th. 



