Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/284

 There were also Chinese barbers who pulled teeth, bled, cupped, and leeched most unmercifully.

Our scientific gentlemen were advised not to visit the woods in search of specimens, as they would be liable  to be attacked by tigers.

The pine-apples here were delicious. They were not in the least acid, and did not turn the knife black when  cut.

On the morning of the 26th, everything being in readiness, we took advantage of the land breeze and got  under way. We passed our Daughter of the Squadron (the Flying Fish), which had been sold, the commodore  fearing to trust her around the stormy Cape of Good  Hope. She had been our companion in many toils and dangers. As we passed her with a strange commander and crew on board, and a foreign flag at her mast-head  floating to the balmy breeze, every bosom was filled with  sadness.

The Sea Gull had foundered off the coast of Terra del Fuego, the Relief had been sent home from New  Holland, the Peacock had been wrecked at the mouth of  the Columbia River, so the Vincennes and Porpoise were  all that remained of the squadron which were to return  to the United States.

The wind being fair, we sailed through the Straits of Banca, into the Java Seas, and through the Straits of  Sunda, into the Indian Ocean. Our ships’ supply of stores, which we took on board at Singapore, had been  awaiting our arrival for several years, and consequently  was rather stale and musty, particularly our hard-tack,  which was both moldy and wormy.