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His stories were what frightened people worst of all. Dreadful stories they were; about hanging, and walking the plank, and storms at sea, and the Dry Tortugas, and wild deeds and places on the Spanish Main.
Ringan seemed to feel the cold the worst of us, for he had spent his days in the hot seas of the south. He put his horse-blanket over his shoulders, and cut a comical figure with his red face peeping from its folds. "Lord," he would cry, "I wish I was in the Dry Tortugas or snug in the beach-house at the Isle o' Pines.
"My business is here, on board the Swash, and I must attend to it. Nothing shall tempt me to give up the brig so long as she floats, and sartain folk float in her, unless it might be some such matter as that which happened on the bit of an island at the Dry Tortugas. Ah! he's a willian! But if I do come back, it will be only to get into my own proper berth ag'in, and not to bring Mr.
As there was no port to which a vessel of that character would be likely to be bound in the quarter of the Gulf to which such a course would lead, Mulford at once inferred it was the sloop-of-war, which, after having examined the islets, at the Dry Tortugas, and finding them deserted, was beating up, either to go into Key West, or to pass to the southward of the reef again, by the passage through which she had come as lately as the previous day.
For the better understanding the voyage of Ponce, it must be observed that the Lucayo or Bahama Islands consist of three groups, the first, or Bahama cluster gives name to the passage, and in which the currents are most impetuous: The second is called De los Organos; and the third the Martyrs, which are next to the Cayos de las Tortugas, or Turtle Keys to the westwards; which last are not to be seen from any distance, being all low sands, and in consequence many ships have perished on them, and all along the Bahama channel, and on the islands of Tortugas.
This little sail was made, if made at all, in the direction of the Dry Tortugas, but so completely was all suspicion at rest in the minds of those on the quarter-deck of the Swash, that neither Spike nor the Mexican had the least idea what it was.
I mentioned General Tuttle's refusal to grant us transportation, the wrongs of the colored soldiers, and the history of the three thousand prisoners on Ship Island and Dry Tortugas, and stated the fact that some missionaries and missionary teachers had advised me to say nothing of these wrongs, however flagrant.
After cruising till the mids declared they were ennuiéd of seeing the Havannah, the dry Tortugas, Cape Antonio, and the low land near Mississippi so often, and that they had worn their chemises twice over and had only soiled sheets for table-cloths; that they were obliged to get one of the marines to pipe-clay their stockings and the collar of their shirts when they were asked to dine in the cabin; that it was a horrible, hard case to eat biscuits filled with bargemen and purser’s lice; that the water was full of jenny jumps—all these miseries, concluded they, ought to be made known to the admiral, and that if he did not order the squadron in again he ought to be tried by a court of mids and reduced to the humble rank of a cockpitsman and feed off bargemen for a month.
Of course this does not interfere in the least with the views of Darwin, for the whole ground presents peculiar features. I wish you would tell him something about this. One of the most remarkable peculiarities of the rocks in the reefs of the Tortugas consists in their composition; they are chiefly made up of CORALLINES, limestone algae, and, to a small extent only, of real corals. . .
One is also interested to see how spring is going to turn out. A day of sun, of delusive bird-singing, sight of the mellow earth, all these begin to beget confidence. The night, even, has been warm. But what is this in the morning journal, at breakfast? "An area of low pressure is moving from the Tortugas north." You shudder. What is this Low Pressure itself, it?
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