Waterbury evening Democrat., 1888-03-28
CHAPTER XII.

had pipe of my own in my pocket; ] fetched q small block of the black tobacco that was in tho pantry, and with some
 srot:i}l,, for 1t was cs hard and dry as glass,
 chl!>-.cd oiI a bowlful and fell a-puff1ng with all the satisfaction of a hardened lover of tobacco who has long been denied his favorite relish.
 My pipe being emptied, I threw some more coals into the furnace, and putting candle ln the lantern went aft to take another view of the little cabins, in one of which re- solved to sleep; for though the cook room would have served me best while the fire burned, reckoned upon it making a colder habitation when the furnace was black than those small compartments in the stern. The cold on deck gushed down so bitingly through the open companion hatch that was fain to close it. Imounted the steps, and with much ado shipped the cover and shut the door, by which of course the great cabin, as call the room in which the two men were, was plunged in darkness; but the cold was not tolerable, and the parcels of candles in the 1arder rendered me indifferent to the gloom.
 On entering the passage in which were the doors of the berths, noticed an object that had before escaped my observation-I mean small trap hatch, no bigger than a man hole, with ring for lifting it, midway down the lane. 1 suspected this to be the entrance to the lazarette, and putting both hands to the ring pulled the hatch up. I sniffed eau tiously, fearing foul air, and then sinking the lantern by the length of my arm peered down, and observed the outlines of casks, bales, cases of white wood, chests, and so forth. I dropped through the hole on to a cask, which left my head and shoulders above the deck, and then with the utmost caution stopped and threw the lantern light around me. But the casks were not powder barrels, which perhaps little reflection might have led me to suspect, since it was not to be supposed that any man would stow his powder in the lazarette.
 As was in the way of settling my u1is- givings touching the stock of food in the schooner, resolved to push through with this business at once, and fetching the chop per went to work upon these barrels and chests; and very briefly will tell you what found. First, l dealt with a tierce that proved full of salt beef. There was a whole row of these tierces, and one sufficed to ex- press the nature of the rest; there were up ward of thirty barrels of pork; one canvas bale I ripped open was full of hams, and of these bales counted half score. The white cases held biscuit There were several sacks of peas, a number of barrels of flour, cases of candles, cheeses, a quantity of tobacco, not to mention variety of jars of several shapes, some of which afterward found to contain marmalade and succadoes of differ ent kinds. On knocking the head off one cask found it held frozen body that by the light of the lantern looked as black as ink; l clipped off Q bit, sucked it, and found it wine.
 was so transported by the sight of this wonderful plenty that fell upon my knees in an outburst of gratitude, and gave hearty thanks to God for his mercy. There was no further need for me to dismally wonder whether was to starve or no; supposing the provisions sweet, here was food enough to last me three or four years. l was so over- joyed and withal curious that I forgot all about the time, and fourishing the chopper made the round of the lazarette, sampling its freight by individual instances, so that by the time was tired had enlarged the list I have given by discoveries of brandy, beer, oatmeal, oil, lemons, tongues, vinegar, rum and eight or ten other matters, all slowed very bunglingly, and in so many different kinds of casks, cases jars and other vessels, as disposed me to believe that several pirati- cal rummagings must have gone to the crea- tion of this handsome and plentiful stock of good things
 We'll, thought I, even if there be no moro coal in the ship than what lies in the cook house, enough fuel is here in the shape of casks, boxes and the like to thaw me pro visions for six months, besides what may come across in the hold, along with the ham, mocks, bedding, boxes, and 50 forth, in tho forecastle, all which would be good to feed my fire with. This was a most comforting reflection, and recollect of springing out through the lazarette hatch with as spirited a caper as ever had cut at any time of my life.
 I replaced the hatch cover, and having re- solved upon the aftmost of the four cabins as my bedroom, entered it to see what kind of accommodation it would yield me. I hung up the lantern, and looked into the cot that was slung athwartships, and spied couple of rugs or blankets, which pulled out, hay ing no fancy to lie under them. The deck was like an old clothes shop or the wardrobe of travelling troop of actors. From the confusion in this and the adjoining cabins concluded that there had been rush at the last-a wild overhauling and finging about of clothes for articles of more value hidden among them. But just as likely not the disorder merely indicated the slovenly indif ference of plunderers to the fruits of pillage that had overstocked them.
 The first garment picked up was cloak of a sort of silk material, richly furred and lined; all the buttons but one had been cut off, and that which remained was silver. 1 spread it in the cot, as it was soft thing to lie upon. Then I picked up coat of thu fashion you will see in Hogarths engravings -the coat collar a broad fold, and the cuffs to the elbow. This was as good as rug, and I put it into the cot with the other.
 I swept the huddle of things with my foot into a corner, and lifting the lids of the boxes saw more clothes some books, 8 collection of small arms, a couple of quadrants, and sundry rolls of paper, which proved to be charts of the islands of the Antilles and tho western South American coast, very ill di- gested. There were no papers of any kind to determine the vessels character, nor journal to acquaint me with her story.
 was tired ill my limbs rather than sleepy and went to the cook room to warm myself at the fire and get me some supper, meaning to sit there till the fire died out and then go to rest; but when I put my knife to the ham I found it as hard frozen as when had first met with it-so with the cheese, and this though there had been fire burning for