cams_Willshire_b16_F007_001_003

the vessel would have been at an end.

Once I was in a brig bound from New Orleans to New York
we experienced a severe gale and expected the next moment to
be our last, had not the brig been a very fast sailer and one of
the best sea boats, she would have gone on a ledge of rock out
of sight of land.

When I was in the steam-ship Crescent City I narrowly
escaped being blown up at sea by the bursting of the boiler; at
another time when there were a large number of passengers on board
we came, very near being burnt.

I was on a schooner bound from New York to Port Gavasten [Galveston]
in Texas and we encountered a terrific gale in the early hours and I was
called out in the night to keep the foresail, when a heavy sea broke
over the vessel and took me with it overboard, when I caught at the main
rigging and then saved myself.

Thus you see Providence has watched over me and guided my steps, wherever I
have been. My partners, are a messeress. White, Davis and Arnold;
we have established a trading-post among the Indians at this place;
White and Davis are in the Yuba River, where I intended to go
this summer if my health had been good; Arnold is drawing
goods for the store from Sacramento City.

We give Mr White's cousin twelve and a half per cent on every
thing he make, for keeping the store for us.

After May; since an Indian went into a store a
few miles north of this, and was going away with some goods
without paying for them; he was pressed to put them
down or pay for them; he refused to do either and the
store keeper served him right by shooting and killing
him on the spot; a little while after that, a large