We rowed down the river, and then across the bay for
three hours, against wind and tide, bow on to heavy rollers, and at last
reached the mouth of the bay, where is the Fort. We remained bobbing
about in the open sea in the trough of the great waves for a considerable
time, and a violent storm of rain, thunder, and lightning came on, so we
put back to the Fort to find shelter under some arches. Then we went to
sleep, leaving the boat _wala_ to watch for the steamer.
At 1.30 I was awakened by the sound of a gun booming across the water. I
sprang up and aroused the others; but we could not see the lights of the
steamer, and turned to sleep. An officer passed out of the Fort, and I
fancied he said to another man that the ship was in; but he only looked
at us and passed on. Presently I felt more fidgety, and making a trumpet
of my hands I called out to the Secretary, who answered back that the
ship had been laying to three-quarters of an hour, and that we should
have gone off when the gun fired. People are so lazy and indolent in
this climate that he did not trouble to let us know it before, though
he was left there for that purpose. If we had not happened to have the
mails and the agent with us in the boat, the ship would have gone on
without us, which would have been an appalling disaster. So I stirred
them up, and we were soon under way again and out to sea. By-and-by
I saw the lights of the steamer, which looked about three miles off.
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