Kong and there is a regular service of steamers between the two ports. But both Dan and I had seen a good deal of ocean travel on steamers, and we decided to make the trip to Manila Bay in a sailing craft, and, accordingly, took passage on the Dart, a three-masted schooner, carrying a miscellaneous cargo for Manila, Iloilo, and other points.
When we secured our berths we did not see Captain Kenny, only the first and second mates of the vessel. Had we seen the captain with his tough-looking and bloated face, it is quite likely that we would have endeavored to secure passage to the Philippines elsewhere.
Yet for several days all went well. The weather was not all that it should have been, for we were sailing in a portion of our globe where hurricanes and earthquakes are of frequent occurrence. Our course had been set directly for Corregidor Island at the entrance to Manila Bay, but it had begun to blow harder and harder, we drove up in the direction of Subig Bay.
The weather kept growing fouler and fouler, and with this Captain Kenny gave himself over to liquor until he was totally unfit to command the Dart. He was a man to allow sails to be set when they should have been furled, and already had he lost one sheet through his foolishness.
The mate, Tom Dawson, was a first-rate fel-
