to hire a boat to get him out to the vessel, and what it would cost.  He said $2.  I gave him the money and told him to get his baggage.  He said he had none.  I told him to come about 11 o’clock and go to work among the hands as if he was one of them; that all were new hands and officers, and they would not know the difference.  He said that the captain had said if any person was caught on board without a ticket they would be put on shore at the first uninhabited island.  I told him I would attend to that in his case.  I went on board and got my berth and baggage all in.  About 11 o’clock I saw my friend coming over the water making for the vessel.  There was considerable confusion on board at the time, passengers constantly arriving, and he was not noticed, and he went to work among the hands as if he had been regularly employed.  In a short time the officers were arranging the men in line to pass the baggage, and said to him:  “You stand here and help pass it,” of course, taking him for one of the men of the boat.  In the evening he came and spoke to me.  I said all right so far.  But in the morning, he said, they are going to examine every person, then they will put me ashore.  I said, keep a stiff upper lip.  If you get in trouble, come to me.

The next morning the gun fired, the anchor was raised, and we sailed down to Bogota, an island similar to Staten Island in the New York Harbor.  The health officers came out.  Then my friend trembled and thought the day of judgment had come to him, but the health officers were on board but a short time.  No examination of those on board took place.  The signal gun for departure was fired.  We passed out of the harbor.  The bow of our vessel was pointed north, and we felt extremely happy.  I said to him, “This vessel is bound for San Francisco, and you are aboard, and will get there as soon as I will.”  A few days after that the mate was arranging the employment of the men, and when he came to my friend’s turn he said to him, “Who employed you?  You are not an able-bodied seaman.”  He made no reply.  They could see he was a man of intelligence, and his pale look showed he had been sick.  It may have moved the sympathies of the officer, who said to him, “This vessel is crowded with people; it wont do for us to be short of water, and I will put the water in your charge, and you must not let any passenger, or even the steward, have any except according to the regulations, and if you attend to that properly no other services will be required of you.”  That took him off of the anxious seat and put him on the solid.  In all his adversities he never thought of turning back.  That commanded my esteem.  His attentions to me, when sick, aroused my sympathies for him, which good action on his part saved him.  Of one thousand passengers desirous of getting on that steamer, and there was room but for sixty on the day of its departure; his chance looked the most hopeless, being penniless, but he was one of the fortunate ones, while those who had plenty of money were left.  It illustrated the old maxim, “Where there is a will there is a way.”