A Queer Race: The Story of a Strange People — page 35: what you’re looking at

Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.

83 A QUEER RACE. “The captain informed me this morning that he is very well pleased with the Santa Anna. She is one of the best builé ships he ever saw, being constructed of a wood called teak, hard enough and stout enough to last acentury. She is also a good sailer, and, with favorable weather and moderate luck, we may, he thinks, reach Portsmouth in about fifty days. ‘‘T sincerely hope so, and pray God he may prove a true prophet: for I am sick of the sea, and so soon as we get home I[ shall resign my appointment, and seek a less exciting, if a more monotonous, sphere of duty ashore. ‘©A terrible discovery was made yesterday. We are short of water. ‘* According to the purser’s calculations, made the day after the burning of the Hecate, the supply on board the Santa Anna was amply sufficiene for the voyage to Ene- Jand; but it now turns out that several of the casks which he thought were fuil are quite empty, and we have not more than enough for ten days’ consumption. We are already on short allowance, and Captain Barnaby has de- ciled to make for the Bermudas. ‘‘Tt is very unfortunate this discovery was not made sooner, for at the best we cannot reach New Providence in less than fifteen days, and if we have bad weather or con- trary winds—but I will not anticipate evil. We are in the hands of Him whom the winds and waves obey. “For two days it has blown a hurricane, and we have been driven hundreds of miles out of our course. The allowance of water is reduced to a quart a day for each man for all purposes, and as it is terribly hot, and as our diet consists chiefly of salt pork and hard biscuits, our suiierings are almost past bearing. ‘‘Becalmed. Allowance reduced toa pint. “Still becalmed. ‘To-day a deputation from the crew waited on the captain, and requested that, in order to economize water, and, perchance, save their lives, the Spanish prisoners should be thrown overboard. This he refused to do, but he ordered the Spaniards’ allowance to be reduced to half a pint. Gom Cc JOO KS EeGom