Page:Twenty years before the mast - Charles Erskine, 1896.djvu/311

 Labor was very cheap. We had all our clothes and blankets washed and mattresses packed for the small  sum of one dollar; also a jar of ginger presented to us  as a "come-ashore." The evening before our departure a grand display of fireworks was given in honor of Captain  Land by several of his Chinese friends.

All the rigging having been set up, and the ship "all atanto," the hatches battened down, and everything  made snug, on the morning of June 1st we weighed  anchor and stood to sea.

While passing Hong Kong we saw "Old Ironsides" (the frigate Constitution) standing in. She fired a shot across our bow, as a signal for us to heave to. The captain paying no attention to it, or to the second, a third was  sent through the foresail, when we hove to. Presently a boat from the Constitution came alongside. An officer climbed over the side, and a letter-bag was put on  board. As the officer was walking aft with the captain, he espied me at the wheel.

"Why, Charlie, is that you?" he exclaimed.

On looking up, I was surprised at seeing old Lieutenant "D—n Your Eyes," of the Vincennes.

"Don’t you know any better than to speak to the man at the wheel, ‘D—n Your Eyes’?" I replied.

He soon took his departure, when we filled and stood on our course.

Nothing of importance occurred until we arrived off the coast of Cochin China, when we were overtaken by  a sou’west monsoon. The captain, having his weather eye open, saw it coming, and we took in our light sails  and sent the yards to the deck. The top-sails lowered,