374 
MOST UNREASONABLE BEINGS. 
sant conviction that she was destined to drown us all 
some fine morning, either by foundering in a gale or 
drifting helplessly on some lee shore. » 
This conviction, as may be supposed, was productive 
of the most constant watchfulness on our part. I never 
saw watches kept with more praiseworthy zeal wdien the 
occasion demanded it. J5ven the crew, who were as con- 
scious as ourselves of the defects of the lame old craft, 
worked with astonishing energy to keep her afloat until 
our arrival in San Francisco, and as determinedly avowed 
their intention of leaving her at that port, whether or 
no, Tom Collins.’* These unreasonable beings actually 
looked forward to the crime of desertion, in preference 
to again “launching out upon the sea” in a vessel whose 
singular feats and annoying predilection for the shore 
Lad already sprinkled more than one head with gray. 
It was a tough cruise, this very “ last one” at which I 
am now looking back ; and, though more than a year has 
passed since our crazy old craft returned us in safety to 
the “Land of the Free and the Home of the Brave,” the 
mind still shrinks from the contemplation of past scenes, 
whose very dangers but served at the time to arouse its 
latent powers of resistance. 
IIow many there are, who, looking back through the 
dim and shadowy past at the more prominent adventures 
of their lives, wonder in vain as to the source of those 
unknown because previously-untaxed powers of the 
mind, by which they were enabled, in times of pressing 
need, to bear up against and finally overcome dangers 
and obstacles which, in the quiet moments of after- 
security, seem to have been burdened with certain death 
