The Evansville journal. [volume] (Evansville, Ind.) 1866-1870, 1866-12-05

WHICH J. uOU muCn iAAO W cPOoA >
and, indeed, / have never told the
whole story to any one; but | think q
sufficiently long time has now elapsed,
and / may as well give it to you since
you are pleased to say you like hear
ing my little adventures.
1t was many years ago, when the
Californian gold-diggings were at
tracing eyerybody's attention, that i
went out as third engineer of steam
err from Panama to San Fran
cisco. I liked the captain very
much, and / had known him by
sight before, though he didn't know no
me; for a short time previously, ne
had several times come on BOARD
shin to which | then belonged at
New YORK To see the captain, who
wos : fr;and of his. Once or twice,
he had brought off his wife and little
dauebter with him, such sweet,
Iadv,like Young woman, and such a
dear little girliAI recollect taking
them down once and showing the en-
gines,-and the lady appeared SO fond
of her husband 7 wondered how he
could leave them to come on this sta
ton. in that lawless time of gold
seeking. Our chief engineer, too, was
a good sort of man, and one who knew
his work well; the second wasn't
bad fellow either, though too fond of
his glass; but the rest of the, officers
and crew were not pleasant ship
mates. The ship was not comforta-
BILE one to me in any respect, and L
soon determined that my first
voyage in her. should be my last,
though we had first-rate wages to in
duce us to stick by the ship at San
Francisco. and not run away to the
gold diggings. ~. -,
I" We arrived out safely, without
any adventure; but we had to wait
long time there before we could sail
on our homeward voyage. Notwith-
standing all precautions, a great many
of our crew ran. away, and it was i'm
possible to replace them: indeed, the
harbor was full of ships. lying useless
there for want of crews to take them
away. But we had also another loss,
and a great one, in our chief engineer.
He had been ailing on the voyage out,
and he, died, poor fellow whilst we
we're lying in the harbor. Our second
was not exactly the person to take
charge OF the engines, being, as /
have said, rather too fond of drink,
and the captain, we heard, was trying
all he could do to get some one in our
chiefs place. Macpherson, the sec
ond, was of course very indignant at
this but so it was. ~ =
/ should think we must have been
quite two months at San Francisco
before we were ready to sail again.
for you must understand that we were
not regular packet on the station,
but had been specially chartered for
the voyage out,-and we thought that
we were going, after all, without any
new chief engineer. We, in the en-
gine-room, were pleased at this, for
Macpherson was good sort of a fell
low enough, except for that fault
which [ have mentioned, and a first
rate workman =; but, on the very last
day before sailing, the captain, of
whom we had seen but little for some
time past, came ON board with per-
son whom he introduced to the en-
gine-room hands as their new chief. 4
+" He was not the only new arrival
on board. There were a few-very
few-passengers; and a lady, who [
heard, to my establishment, was the
captains wife. whom he had married
since we had been at San Francisco.
Now, as | have already told you, [
had seen his wife, and little daughter
but short time before, so you may
think how much / was surprised at
seeing this other woman brought on
board as his wife now. was very
much surprised at our captain, whom
L had taken for a different sort of
man; but it was all no business of
mine, so held my tongue about it. |
This new woman that he had now was
very handsome, certainly, though of
bold, masculine style of beauty, and
with such an eyel thought I
shouldn't exactly like her, for wife
myself; though she was really hand
some, and it was no wonder that any
man should be taken up with her.
Right or wrong, / form my opin-
and | didn't like our new
;nieI. he was quiet ana mild In
MS manners certainly, wonderfully
so for that time in that part of the
world-but there was wild, dissipated,
wicked look, if you understand me. in
his eye, which seemed to me to tell
that he could be very different if he
chose. Icould not help remarking to |
Macpherson, that / thought we had
rum one to deal with now; and he re-
piled that he should like to know his
history, for he guessed it was strange
one. -
One thing was evident to me from
the first time he came into the engine
room,-he was not practical work.
ing engineer. That he knew some
thing about engines was plain; and he
gave his orders with decision, and
without ony apparent doubt of him
sell; but there was theoretical rath-
err than q M. Il