To complete its equipment, I
contrived a rudder, so that I could direct the boat from either end.
After signalling to our friends that we should not return that night, we
spent the rest of the day in emptying the tubs of the stones we had used
for ballast, and replacing them with useful things. Powder and shot,
nails and tools of all kinds, pieces of cloth; above all, we did not
forget knives, forks, spoons, and kitchen utensils, including a
roasting-jack. In the captain's cabin we found some services of silver,
pewter plates and dishes, and a small chest filled with bottles of
choice wines. All these we took, as well as a chest of eatables,
intended for the officers' table, portable soup, Westphalian hams,
Bologna sausages, &c.; also some bags of maize, wheat, and other seeds,
and some potatoes. We collected all the implements of husbandry we could
spare room for, and, at the request of Fritz, some hammocks and
blankets; two or three handsome guns, and an armful of sabres, swords,
and hunting-knives. Lastly, I embarked a barrel of sulphur, all the cord
and string I could lay my hands on, and a large roll of sailcloth. The
sulphur was intended to produce matches with. Our tubs were loaded to
the edge; there was barely room left for us to sit, and it would have
been dangerous to attempt our return if the sea had not been so calm.
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