71- 
from time to t im e various errands he wanted to do in town and 
dashing off or sending a hoy. 
We spent the whole morning on the miserable little wharf, 
just waiting* Bernice, Mrs. Campbell, Mrs. Godley and Mrs. Tandy 
showed up about nine thirty to o\ir great surprise; they had the 
Firestone mail, which had been forgotten, and only discovered by 
George on his desk this morning. The Kru boys, who have been 
working on board the West Irmo since it stopped here six weeks 
ago, came ashore with their boxes and baskets of stuff they had 
bought down the coast, and with a Jocko monkey, which Bill bought 
for' four shillings. Half an hour later another native came to 
us and said, "Did you buy that monkey?" "Yes," says Bill. "But 
it's my monkey, " he said, "that other boy have no right to sell 
it to you.# I paid five shillings for it down the Coast. " ^ "That’s 
not my fault, "said Bill, but he got the four shillings back from 
the first native and told the real owner what he had paid for the 
monkey. fo our surprise he accepted the price without quibble 
and the monkey belonged to us without further incident. 
It was nearly noon before the Captain showed up and we got 
into our surf boat. The bar was not too scary, although there 
were a few big waves where it seemed as though the nose of our 
boat would go straight down into the sand.. The ocean was rough, 
with a heavy swell raising and lowering us as we slowly rowed out 
the two or three miles that we had to go. But the worst part was 
when we tried to tie up alongside the gangway. Our small boat 
rose with the waves until we could almost jump on deck, then 
dropped sickeningly as the swell passed* A sailor stood on ‘che 
bottom step of the ladder to help us on, and every lew moments 
he would grab a chain overhead and swing his legs up out of the 
way of the water that broke about half way up the ladder • Jo ward 
that I am I yelled for a mammy chair, but was told there was none 
on hoard. There was nothing to do but stand up on the gun whale/ 
of our boat and wait until the water lifted us to a level with 
the steps. One of the mates came down to give us a hand, and 
with the two men on the jsamxx ladder to help me, and two on the 
surf boat to push me off, I finally leaped across and staggered up 
more terrified than I have ever been, in my life. Once on the ladder 
the scary part was only begun i every time the surf boat below 
crashed into it, it swung and crashed into the steel side of the 
shin. When I finally got on deck I was trembling all over, and my 
mouth was so dr^ j couldn’t even laugh about how frightened I had been 
rhere was an excellent opportunity for breaking a leg on the way 
and after waiting this .long for passage home 
didn’t want any 
- i* 
«L" O U 
up, 
more uei&ys • We are really o xto.'.* a .wo, >.ao, late , < x u 
news of the shin was to the effect that she world hwe ' "or.rovia 
between the 10th and 15th of June. 
We found the West Irmo loaded so heavily with mahogany that 
it was low in the water. Great logs of' 6, 7 or even 9 tons are 
lashed on deck with heavy chains to keep them from washing away. 
A few minutes after we got on, the ’West Irmo go^ under way. 
We went in to lunch, and presently heard the whistles Plowing 
frantic blasts, and realized that our engines were slowing down 
and stopping. We went out to see what the matter was, and ,x ound 
a young 'stowaway, a colored lad now handcuffed to the rail, who 
