On the morning of October 30, I took command of the vessel, with the intention of getting her ready for sea the same evening, that I might be prepared to receive the prisoners, who were to be sent on board of her the same night. By hard work on my part, and plenty of pushing up my men, we were all ready by night, and at eleven o’clock, P. M., the prisoners began to come on board. Hard featured, desperate looking men, some of them were, with the downcast, heavy look of criminals. Men were among them who had set law at defiance, whose hands had been against every man, and in whose hearts the kindly affections had long been deadened; and I felt as I looked at their countenances, made, perhaps, more repulsive to me by the dark, foreign cast of features which my early education and prejudices had taught me to associate with men of desperate fortunes, that there was no easy task before me. There were, however, among them men of high rank, who, for having joined in one of those political struggles which so constantly shake the South American Republics, were now condemned to a long imprisonment on the savage shores of Patagonia, in the society of convicts and felons of the worst kind; some sentenced for a tedious term of three years, some doomed to a life-long imprisonment. On the evening of Sunday, November 3d, I received a notice from Commodore R. Simpson, acting Intendente of Valparaiso, by the captain of the port, that all the prisoners were now on board, the notice being accompanied by an order for me to proceed to sea at once, without any further communication with the shore. The Intendente evidently feared the escape of some of our prisoners, or perhaps some communication between them and their political associates. The evening being calm, the sea breeze having died away, and no appearance of the land breeze springing up, I asked the captain of the port, to whom the regulation of all the shipping in the harbor belongs, for the assistance of two boats from the Chilian man-of-war which was lying in the harbor at the time, to tow my vessel out to sea. They were sent, and assisted us till midnight, when a land breeze springing up, they left us, and returned to the harbor. I had made every preparation to insure order and security during the voyage, had mounted two of the four pounders upon the poop deck, pointing forward so as to rake the whole deck, and kept them constantly loaded. The prisoners, about eighty in number, were put into the hold of the vessel, and were only allowed to come on deck for air and refreshment, in small detachments. A sentinel was stationed at the gangway, and the deck was constantly guarded by seven soldiers and half my crew. The crew consisted of eight men before the mast, part Americans and part foreigners, first and second mate, cook, and cabin boy. Mr. Shaw, Captain Avalos, Mr. Buela, the first and second mates, and myself shared the cabin.