crew, very jolly times, and without much hard work to the man, were enjoyed. Care sat lightly on the young seamen, and they all had regular rations as if there was no thought of shortage, though upon making harbor it was found but a day's supply remained aboard.
TO THE COLUMBIA.
At the Sandwich Islands, Bradbury found ships ready to sail for New England, but having made no money thus far on his two and a half years' cruising, he felt very averse to returning home just yet. Finding Captain Crosby, a merchant of Oregon in port with his bark, Bradbury decided to try this new country at last, in hope of finding here his fortune. Crosby at first rather hesitated to accept a man to work his passage, as Bradbury must, but upon looking the young sailor over again, decided to give him a trial; and until the voyage was half completed, Bradbury did his full share of work. About this time, however, he was* attacked with low fever, and as the disease was prolonged, became at last so much reduced that all consciousness left him, and to this day he has no recollection of the last half of the voyage, or even of crossing the Columbia bar. The first return of perception was to find himself within the river, and he recalls the refusal of his request to go ashore, as he was too weak to move.
Sailing up the Columbia proved a slow process, but in the course of time the vessel was met, at some point perhaps about Deer Island, by a capacious boat from up the river, under David McLoughlin. Into this Bradbury was allowed to enter, and in the course of the day was rowed up to Portland, then a town of one house, and there he paid his last fifty-cent piece for bed and breakfast. Men that he remembers aboard the vessel, besides
