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Show 24 PERSONAL ADVENTURES of all the painful incidents passing around us. I never saw t\VO beings more completely unmanned, as they stood side by side, ·with hands convulsively clasped together, and the briny flood pouring in a torrent down their cheeks, presenting a picture of such intense anguish, as to attract the attention even of those who had their own sorrows to occupy them. We were so crowded, on board the schooner which was to convey us down to the steamer, that there ensued an incessant struggle on deck for breathing room : to walk about was impossible; to stand or to sit with comfort equally so; and below, suffocation appeared imminP-nt. To increase our tribulation and uneasiness, we had to encounter the pangs of hunger; for we discovered that the cook had abandoned his post, and that there was no dinner. At about eleven at night, we layto off Castle Garden, when the outcry for food became so resolute, that our first lieutenant found it imperative to send ashore for provisions. The embassy, however, not pro· IN CALIFORNIA. 25 clueing any result, inasrnuch as the caterers did not make their appearance, it was judged advisable, about midnight, to deRpatch a second party in search of the delinquents, whom they found regaling themselves, and utterly oblivious of the cravings of their companions on board. The t\vo parties returned together, bringing a scanty supply of bread and cheese and beer, which rapidly disappeared, the distribution of the former being pretty fair, but that of the liquid being regulated by the }a,v of the strongest and the most enterprising. However, in spite of short commons, comparative contentment was beginning to manifest itself, when the cry of " Murder!" was surlden]y uttered, in a piercing screa1n, by one of the women. There 'vas a general . rush to the hatch whence the shriek had proceeded, and where one of the sergeants and a lieutenant \Vere seen engaged in-what appeared a deadly struggle, each striving to throw the other overboard. The officer, being the stronger man, soon succeeded in mastering his adver~ ary, and, dragging him over the hatch, let VOL. I. c ( |