The Polly Eliza was steaming down the bay rapidly. In a couple of hours she had passed the point. The day was a delightful one, and the three spent the entire forenoon on deck.
“This used to be a very odd kind of a voyage during the first years of the gold fever,” said Mr. Whyland. “There were very few steamers, and the sailing-vessels took from sixty to ninety days to reach San Francisco.”
“Didn’t some people come by sailing-vessels all the way around Cape Horn?” asked Gus.
“Yes; almost all the first people that did not go overland came that way. It was a tedious journey. The second vessel that made the trip took nine months.”
“Nine months!” exclaimed Oliver. “Why, that is three-quarters of a year.”
“When they reached the Golden Gate nearly half of the passengers were sick with scurvy, and many of them were buried up to their necks in the ground to cure them.”
“I wouldn’t want to take any such trip as that,” put in Gus. “I would get so sick of seeing nothing but water and sky I wouldn’t know what to do.”
“It is no easy matter to double the Horn, as it is called,” continued Mr. Whyland. “It took that vessel nearly seven weeks to do it. Every time she was nearly around, the fierce trade winds from the Pacific would drive her back.”
“I’m glad I didn’t have to go that way,” said Gus with a grimace.