PORTER’S JOURNAL, 
S3 
ing the barrels that contained them, we found only a mass of 
chaff and worms. The rats, also, had found the way into our bread™ 
rooms, and had occasioned a great consumption of that precious 
article. As to our water, none could be sweeter or purer; it 
had not undergone the slightest change since it had been on 
board; and the only fact I think it necessary to state, in support 
of this assertion, is, that a live mullet, nearly ^ of an inch in length, 
was this day pumped from a .cask, filled with the water in the ri¬ 
ver Delaware : had this water undergone any corruption, the fish 
could not certainly have existed in it. This little fish, I have put 
.in a bottle of its native water, with a view of preserving it alive ; 
from its size, I should suppose it to have been produced from 
the spawn while in the cask. The water taken in at St. Catha¬ 
rines, was found to be equally good ; and my own experience now 
enables me to assure all navigators, that the only precautions ne¬ 
cessary, to have good water at sea, are to provide casks made of 
well seasoned staves, have them cleansed, and filled with pure 
water. Should it be necessary at any time (for the trim or 
safety of the ship, which is sometimes the case) to fill them with 
salt water, particular care must be taken, that they be filled, and 
well soaked and cleansed with fresh water, before they are filled 
with the water intended for use. These particulars, as I have 
before observed, have never been neglected by me, since I have 
had the command of a vessel; and consequently no one on board 
has ever suffered from the use of bad water ; and, certainly, this 
is an object that well merits the attention of every commander, 
when the chief comfort and the health of his crew are so much 
dependent thereon. For who has experienced, at sea, a greater 
enjoyment than a draught of pure water ? Or who can say, that 
the ship-fever and scurvy do not originate frequently in the stink¬ 
ing and disgusting water, which seamen are too often driven to 
the necessity of drinking at sea, even when their stomachs revolt 
at it ? 
On the 24th, after experiencing a heavy gale from the N.W., 
I had the extreme satisfaction to find ourselves as far to the west¬ 
ward as 80o ; an d as the wind shifted and blew from the S.W., I 
had no doubt of being able to effect our passage into the Pacific 
