took me six months. At last, when my preparations were all ready I set sail, but had not run a mile down the river when I went hopelessly ashore upon a sandbank.
"I tried every means to get off. I backed the engines furiously—it was useless. I waited till the next spring-tide, and even got another vessel and with infinite labour made fast a hawser and tried to tow her off, but with no result. I cried with vexation, but it was no good; I had to begin my preparations all over again.
"So I found another vessel, the one in which I came here, tried the machinery and found it satisfactory, and spent a whole year in lading her. The first ship had fortunately a large stock of fuel on board, but this one was almost empty, and tons upon tons of compressed naptha cakes I carried on board single-handed. Fortunately the stores of the city of New Orleans were at my disposal, and once on board the self-feeding appliances of the machinery would take all the business of stoking off my hands."
"But do you mean that you carried with your own hands several hundred tons of fuel on board that vessel?" asked I in amazement.
