I accepted only too gladly, and that very evening I wrote a long letter to my mother, explaining my good fortune, bidding her not to worry by exaggerating, in her own mind, the dangers to be encountered.
The next few days I spent mostly with my benefactor, for as such I looked upon him, helping him in various ways in his preparations for the voyage. As for myself, I required little more than a modest supply of clothing.
Mr. Sargent was thoughtful and considerate, however, and insisted upon my procuring much that I deemed unnecessary for my modest requirements, paying for the same from his own pocket.
Our craft was a trim bark called the Ethelyn Hope, built at Searsport three years before. She was two hundred and fifty tons gross measurement and sat in the water jauntily and buoyantly. From her load water-line to the tips of her topmast she was as trim a craft as one could wish to see. As she lay at the wharf ready for sea, everything on deck had been made snug, and not a coil of rope or spare block was out of place. Her cargo consisted of case oil, salt fish and flour in her hold, and she carried a good deck-load of lumber. She was bound for Cayenne, French Guiana, on the north coast of South America.
The Ethelyn Hope was commanded by Captain Thomas Witham; and the first, second and third mates, with nine able seamen before the mast comprised the crew.
Nothing remained to be done except to cast off the lines, when, released from her bonds the bark slowly moved down the river. The sails on the lower yards and jib-boom were set, and with a light breeze favoring her, aided by the swift current, the city was soon lost behind High Head.
By daylight the following morning we had passed through the "Narrows", and just at sunrise all sails were set and the bark squared away for the mouth of the bay where she was laid on a sou', sou'-east course as she took her final departure.
My spirits were decidedly buoyant as the bark glided out of the bay into the open sea, and a delicious sense of elation took possession of me as I realized that I was really on board a ship, with the land fading away behind me, bound for a foreign shore, the wonderful tropics, the land of palms of which I had read so much. I should see for myself the curious things of the sea, strange countries and people; and perhaps encounter fierce animals in the virgin forests, the home of birds of rare and beautiful plumage.
With a strong northwest breeze the bark stood away on her course, with every sail filled out and drawing handsomely. Although the weather had been clear and the sea fairly calm, by sunset a thin haze rendered the outline of the horizon dimly visible, and the Captain began to fear a blow. His nautical instinct made him sure that there was to be a change in the weather, and he gave orders for everything to be made secure. And, sure enough, at dusk the wind freshened and hauled around into the north-east.
It was about this time that I suddenly became conscious of a peculiar feeling, a sudden dizziness, like the sensation caused by a boy's first cigar. I knew well enough that I was experiencing the first sensations of seasickness, and, suddenly losing interest in the sailing of the ship, I went below and tumbled into my berth.