NOTEBOOK

him I thought I was man enough to stand the truth, in
its worst form.

He then said the disease was cholera and of the most
virulent type—that he had done all a man could do, but
he had no medicines to work with—that he shipped the
first time this trip and found the locker empty, and no
time to make a requisition for more medicines.

To add to the gloom of the situation there
occurred now a break-down in the engine-room.

Jan. 5, 5 P.M. That bolt-head broke day before yes-
terday and we lost 2 hours. It broke again yesterday and
we lost 3 or 4 hours. It broke again this afternoon, and
again we lay like a log on ihe water (head wind) for
3 or 4 hours more.

These things distress the passengers beyond meas-
ure. They are scared about the epidemic, and so im-
patient to get along—and now they have lost confidence
in the ship and fear she may break again in the rough
weather that is lo come. I did not take any interest in the
matter until just now I found the cursed little bolt was
a sort of king-pin and that the engine must stop without it.

The passengers say that we are out of luck and that
it is a doomed voyage.

It appears, though it is kept from the passengers, that
there are seven or eight patients in the hospital down
below.

Mem. Get names of the dead from the F. 0. [First
Officer], to telegraph.

Some misgivings, some distress as to whether the au-
thorities of Key West will let our pestilence-stricken ship
land there—but the captain says we arc in sore distress,
in desperate straits, and we must land; we will land in

47