Chapter I.
I with three others, sailed from New York on the 4th day of August, 1857, on board of the British barque "Oak," of Hartlepool. We crossed the bar the next day with little or no wind, and laid our course S.E. by E. from the Highland Lights, losing sight of the Lights at dark that night. Our voyage was very pleasant until we crossed the line — the Equator: there, for two or three days, it was rather squally, but not enough to reef topsails. We had a good run until we made the Islands of Amsterdam and St. Paul, two lonely islands in the middle of the Indian Ocean. The next land we made was the Islands of Java and Sumatra about the 20th of November. Arrived at Anjiers in the Straits of Sunda about dark the
