"I am not giving you extracts from my log, so that I need only tell you that about a month was consumed in successful trading with the Spaniards, in spite of the men-of-war on the look out for us at sea, and the custom-house officers and soldiers sent to intercept us in shore. We touched, I remember, at Conception, Coquimbo, Huasco, Point Negra, and other places on the coast of Chili. "At last the vigilance of the Spanish authorities being completely aroused, it was thought better to keep away from the shore for a short time, to throw them off their guard. Captain Derick accordingly determined to visit a group of islands some distance to the westward, to lay in a stock of turtle, with which those islands abound. I think they were the Gallipagos, but as we never reached them, I am not certain. The Pacific is very properly so called, but when the wind does take it into its head to blow, then it makes up for its general idleness. The weather had long continued calm and beautiful, and everything went well on board. Captain Derick once more laughed and joked, and his wife looked happy and contented. Not satisfied, however, to let things alone, he must bring up the subject of the old witch again, and declared that the whole story, from first to last, was trumped up by the crew, and that neither he nor any one else on board had ever set eyes on her since the day we left Liverpool. How he could venture on such assertions I don't know, but he wanted to persuade others of what he wished to believe himself. "The evening was beautifully calm and serene: it put me in mind of the one we had before the night on which we had lost our masts off the coast of Brazil, only this was calmer and warmer. Not a breath of air was felt, the sails hung listlessly down against the masts, the sea was smooth as a polished mirror, and the sky of the purest blue; the atmosphere, notwithstanding the warmth, was pleasant, and every one on board was in good spirits. As the night drew on, however, the air became more stagnant, the heat increased, and as there was not even a swell moving the bosom of the Pacific, the dead silence which prevailed became absolutely oppressive.