Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER II A LON'C AND TEDIOUS WAIT OFF FOE CALIFORNIA AT LAST A VOYAGE OF HARDSHIPS, SUFFERING, ELEMENTAL STORMS, THIRST, FAMINE AND OTHER THRILLING INCIDENTS How slowly the time dragged along in that old, sleepy town of Realejo! It was about the 20th of March when I arrived there. I had been over a month and a half on the road, and had come to a dead standstill at a point where I might have to wait for months before I could get a chance to continue my voyage. There was nothing for it, however, but to resign myself to the situation and to wait patiently until some vessel bound for San Francisco should call in for water and supplies; and then she would, in all probability, be so crowded as to make it impossible for me to secure passage. I soon experienced a sample of this kind of disappointment. A little old brigantine, the Fdiz, put into the harbor from Panama, and was so densely crowded with passengers that there was absolutely no room in her for any more. She reported that Panama was literally jammed with people, and that anything inthe shape of a craft was eagerly chartered for the voyage to San Francisco. In proof of this several small boats put into Realejo for water. One of these was an iron boat, about fifteen feet long, that had been carried across the isthmus. She was rigged with a mast and sails, and a party of six were thus, by short stages, making for San Francisco. When I arrived in that city some months afterward, I learned of the sad fate of this party. They coasted successfully as far as Mazatlan, where they agreed with the captain of a French bark bound for California to give him their boat if he would take them aboard as passengers. That night there arose a great storm and the vessel was driven upon a reef, and all on board perished. This calamit...