It now began to blow fresh; the rain fell fast, and it grew black; but the captain would not take in sail until we were well clear of the point.  As soon as we left this on our quarter, and were standing out to sea, the order was given, and we went aloft, double-reefed each topsail, furled the foresail, and double-reefed the trysail, and were soon under easy sail.  In these cases of slipping for southeasters there is nothing to be done, after you have got clear of the coast, but to lie-to under easy sail, and wait for the gale to be over, which seldom lasts more than two days, and is sometimes over in twelve hours; but the wind never comes back to the southward until there has a good deal of rain fallen. ``Go below the watch,’’ said the mate; but here was a dispute which watch it should be.  The mate soon settled it by sending his watch below, saying that we should have our turn the next time we got under way.  We remained on deck till the expiration of the watch, the wind blowing very fresh and the rain coming down in torrents.  When the watch came up, we wore ship, and stood on the other tack, in towards land.  When we came up again, which was at four in the morning, it was very dark, and there was not much wind, but it was raining as I thought I had never seen it rain before.  We had on oil-cloth suits and southwester caps, and had nothing to do but to stand bolt upright and let it pour down upon us.  There are no umbrellas, and no sheds to go under, at sea.

While we were standing about on deck, we saw the little brig drifting by us, hove to under her fore topsail double reefed; and she glided by like a phantom.  Not a word was spoken, and we saw no one on deck but the man at the wheel.  Toward morning the captain put his head out of the companion-way and told the second mate, who commanded our watch, to look out for a change of wind, which usually followed a calm, with heavy rain.  It was well that he did; for in a few minutes it fell dead calm, the vessel lost her steerage-way, the rain ceased, we hauled up the trysail and courses, squared the after-yards, and waited for the change, which came in a few minutes, with a vengeance, from the northwest, the opposite point of the compass.  Owing to our precautions, we were not taken aback, but ran before the wind with square yards.  The captain coming on deck, we braced up a little and stood back for our anchorage.  With the change of wind came a change of weather, and in two hours the wind moderated into the light steady breeze, which blows down the coast the greater part of the year, and, from its regularity, might be called a trade-wind.  The sun came up bright, and we set royals, skysails and studding-sails, and were under fair way for Santa Barbara.  The little Loriotte was astern of us, nearly out of sight; but we saw nothing of the Ayacucho.  In a short time she appeared, standing out from Santa Rosa Island, under the lee of which she had been hove to all night.  Our captain was eager to get in before her, for it