One of the officers asked the young man if all the U. S. soldiers were as expert with the use of the gun as he was, and he replied that he had just been expelled from the army for one year, in consequence of being the poorest shot in his regiment, which was Co. Y. of the 287th regiment of light infantry, stationed at Fortress Monroe; but that he was allowed one year for practice, and if at the expiration of that time he could do the regulation shot according to Scott’s Manual of Tactics, he would be re-admitted into the Army. When asked what the regulation shot was, he replied that every soldier was required to be able to put four balls out of five into a four-inch ring, off-hand, at a distance of half a mile when ordered, and no postponement on account of the weather.
“My hies,” was the only answer.
Having laid in a good supply of fruit, etc., we sailed out again upon the broad ocean toward the land of gold. From this port we cannot, however, take a direct course for California, in consequence of the irregularity of the winds along the coast. We are therefore compelled to test the maxim that the longest way around is in some cases the nearest way home, and for such reasons our good ship is headed in the direction of Japan until we reach longitude about 140° W., from which point upon the equator, in consequence of the prevailing winds, the course can be laid direct for the port of San Francisco.
One of the greatest pleasures of a long tedious sea voyage is in speaking with other ships, bound for different ports of the world, and when the condition of the sea and weather permits, it is usual to exchange courtesies by giving the latest news, the destination of your ship, and occasionally visiting each other. Many, of course, were the questions asked by the commanders of other ships upon seeing so many passengers on ship-board, in that portion of the sea, not having heard of the wonderful gold discovery. One commander, in particular, hailing from Valparaiso and bound for Cork, who had passed several ships loaded with passengers, very earnestly inquired if we Yankees were on our way to found a new empire somewhere among the islands of the Pacific ocean, or if we were only the rear guard of Alexander’s army searching for new worlds to conquer. We, however, satisfied his curiosity by informing him that we were neither one nor the other, but simply Pilgrims going in search of the new Jerusalem supposed to be somewhere in California.
We had now a fair wind until near the equator, where it then left us, and there fell a great calm upon the waters.
It is in these latitudes that the conditions are most favorable for the formation of the water-spout, for it is here where the winds are variable, and where dead calms of long duration are the rule, and nature’s forces find the breeding grounds for the marine cyclones—it is here that the germs of the Kansas cyclones are found, in their original purity, free from dust, old fence-rails, hay, or ox-carts; the upright columns being filled only with pure sea water, drawn up from the surface of the ocean. We saw many of them in all stages of growth, from the newly-formed, which was just able to move along in an upright position, staggering and swaying from side to side like a child just learning to walk, up to the monster columns which possessed the power to elevate into the regions above anything with which it came in contact, from a clam-shell to a man-of-war. Five were seen in one day, and one of the largest of them seemed inclined to pay us a visit; but being aware of the fact, we made all necessary preparations to give it a warm reception. It changed its course, from an instinct of danger no doubt, which was the general opinion, from the fact that an old seaman declared positively that if you discharge a cannon-ball into this column of water, it will instantly burst, as the proper circulation is destroyed. For the same reasons also, as the veteran salt and able seaman declared, it was even possible sometimes to frighten one of them to death by running out of the port-hole a Quaker gun, and he said that he had seen several burst in that way. It was the most economical way, as it saved a lot of powder; but of course the rest of us old salts didn’t believe all he said about it.
We found that upon the occurrence of any event during the voyage, this old salt could refer to a similar event within his experience that would discount anything we had seen. For instance, during the calm he remarked that,
“This calm was nothing to what he experienced at a certain time on the coast of Chili.”
“Why,” said he, “the calm lasted nearly two months, the surface of the ocean became stagnant, turned green, and smelled like bilge water, and you could see dead fish of all kinds, and even dead whales floating about.”
During the gale which occurred upon the Atlantic also, he remarked: