As I spoke I saw that San Domingo was laying in from the jib-boom end, he having, like myself, seen that we had got hold of the men; and presently he ranged up alongside me and, following my example, industriously set to work to throw the coils of braces, halliards, clewlines, and so on off the pins, and bend the ends of them into bowlines in readiness for hauling the rescued men up the side. The task of getting the poor fellows safely inboard was soon accomplished, when, administering to each man a pannikin of scalding hot coffee that had meanwhile been prepared in the galley, I sent them below into the forecastle with instructions to strip, rub each other well down, and turn in until a good meal could be prepared for them; when, the rescued crew being thus temporarily disposed of, we filled upon the ship and resumed our voyage. A good substantial meal of beef, potatoes, and ship's bread, backed up with a few hours' sleep, and a shift into dry clothes, sufficed to set the rescued men upon their pins again, little or nothing the worse for the hardship and exposure they had so recently undergone; and that same evening I obtained from the mate of the brig, a man named Cooper, the particulars of their adventure. From this man's story it appeared that the brig, a vessel of one hundred and seventy-four tons register, named the _Golden Gate_, hailed from San Francisco, from which port she had sailed in search of a cargo of sandal-wood. The quest had been successful, a full cargo had been obtained, and all had gone well with the craft up to the afternoon of the preceding day, when her crew, like us, had found themselves becalmed. Unlike myself, however, the skipper of the _Golden Gate_--who proved to be the man who had unfortunately been swept away and lost during the process of rescue--had obstinately refused to believe that the threatening aspect of the weather meant anything worse than a sharp thunderstorm, and had declined to accede to the suggestion of his mate that sail should be shortened, averring that all the wind they were likely to get they would need to help them out of the region of the equatorial calms. The result had been that when the hurricane burst upon them the ship was hove over upon her beam-ends, with her sails flat upon the water, in which position she had gradually filled, her cargo only preventing the waterlogged hull from sinking under the feet of her crew. Fortunately for all hands, they had entertained sufficiently serious doubts of their skipper's judgment to determine them to remain on deck and see the matter out; hence, when the brig went over, they were in a measure prepared for the catastrophe, and lost no time in clambering on to the vessel's upturned side. From this position the sea, breaking heavily over the hull, soon drove them into the rigging, where they had remained, constantly drenched with spray and frequently submerged beneath the vast volumes of water that poured over the wreck,