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In the meantime, one	of	the	fellows had had	too much to	drink,	for, coming
home, he proposed to one	of	the	girls that they	should be married	that night.
The	rest of us thought it would	be fine to go to a wedding,	so we	urged it on
him all we could.
I went after the license, which cost two dollars, and the other man went after the parson. While we were gone, the groom drank still more and could hardly stand up. But they were married while I stood and held him up. Then we bought some cakes and wine, got hold of a fiddler and danced merrily.
Thomas was now so drunk we had to put him to bed. The next morning at six o'clock a	message	came for	us	to go aboard.	We went up	to get Tom and found
him still	asleep.	He could	not	recollect at	all that he had been married. But
nothing would do - he had to go, and he did not get home until two years later. I have since met him in Baltimore, and he is living very happily with the wife he got without knowing it.
We sailed away from	the	town, but anchored	a few miles	down the bay. We
had got a taste of land now, and were not anxious to go to sea. Tom wanted to go home to his wife, so we determined we would steal away at night. But, as our boat	was hoisted on deck,	Tom, as	soon	as it got dark, was to	swim over to
another ship whose yawl was	in	the	water	and bring it to us.	When he got
there, he was discovered. The people called out to him and he had to give it up and swim back again.
The	next morning we went	to	sea.	The	weather was bad, and the provisions
were not	as good as they should	have	been,	so we were all pretty	cross. And,
with it	all, we	had	a great	ass	of a cook, who never	could get the meals on
time, so we had	to lose a great	deal of our sleep	on	his account. One day I
waited two hours on him and I commenced scolding him about it. He quarreled back, and it ended in a fight. I got him behind a chicken coop and began to beat him but then	the mate	came running and	struck me in	the face with a piece
of wood.	Then the rest of	the	crew came up	and took the	part of the mate, so
we had quite a skirmish. We won the victory, and after that we made up and everything was all right.
We	sailed	now	between	the Bahaman Islands,	a	few very low islands
overgrown with bushes. After eight days we sailed in between Cuba, St. Domingo and Jamaica, very irregular, mountainous islands, but they look very beautiful. Everywhere they are overgrown with green trees.
We	steered	now	toward	the	Bluefields river,	as	there lived a lot of
Indians and Negroes with whom the captain meant to trade. At the same time, through an Indian who traded for him, he hoped to get a chance to unload his tobacco and rum, which the Spanish Government did not permit to be imported.
On the morning of August 18 we saw Bluefields Bluff, but the wind was from the land and the current of the river so strong we could not enter. So we ran down the coast to St. John's River, where there lived an Englishman by the name of Shepherd, with whom we later had trouble.
This man was like a king on the coast. The Indians were fond of him, the Spaniards were afraid of him. He kept two armed vessels which smuggled right before their noses, which shows how weak the Colombian government is. He had almost all the trade to himself and, therefore, it was a thorn in his side that we came down there.