The voyage across to Valparaiso was eventful. We had bad weather throughout, and a heavy cyclone which did us great damage about the decks. We were hove to for two days with a tarpaulin in the mizzen rigging. We sailed right through the storm centre, where we had no wind, but a terrific and very confused sea, and here we saw hundreds of sea-birds of all kinds. At Valparaiso we obtained a charter to load cocoa at Guayaquil. We had a lovely cruise up the coast, and the sail up the river to Guayaquil was heavenly; we had the panorama of the Andes on our right, with the richly verdured island of Puna on the other hand; flocks of flamingoes were wading in the shallow sea channels, and pelicans were busy fishing along the margins of the sandbanks. At Guayaquil we had some good crocodile shooting, not the easiest game to bag. These reptiles had to be stalked in the most approved fashion; although they lay seemingly basking and asleep in the sun, with their great mouths wide open, their ears were very much on the alert, and it was most difficult to come within shot. We succeeded better from a boat than from the land, for by allowing the boat to drift with the tide we were able to get within easy shot without being heard. I visited Bodegas and some of the Indian villages at the foot of the Andes. The whole country was very interesting, and very rich in tropical birds and flowers. There were too many snakes to make travelling quite comfortable, but in time we found they all did their best to get away from us, and we gained more confidence. I had a little adventure in Guayaquil which might have been very unpleasant. There was a revolution, and the government troops had only just regained possession of the city; I had the misfortune to walk unwittingly through a barricade, which consisted of some half-dozen ragged black soldiers, who quite failed to suggest to me a military outpost. I was at once arrested and taken to the jail. Here I remained for some hours surrounded by the most horrible looking ruffians, and was in mortal dread of the time when I should be locked up with them in one of the foul dens which led off the court-yard. I was fortunately set free through the kind intervention of an American who had been a witness of my capture and incarceration. At Guayaquil we loaded a cargo of cocoa and sailed for Falmouth for orders. We arrived off this port in November, 1859, after an uneventful voyage of 110 days. We tacked the ship off the Manacle Rocks, at the entrance to the harbour; the wind flew round to the east, and we were driven out again into the chops of the channel; it was twenty-four days before we again saw Falmouth. We fought our way against a succession of easterly gales, sometimes driven out as far west as the Fastnet. The fleet of ships kept out by the long continued easterly winds was very large, and the Admiralty was obliged to dispatch relief ships with stores for their succour.