of December, 1845, a fire was started again under the boiler and preparations made for journeying on, and soon thereafter the anchor was weighed and the ship set in motion, to everyone’s joy. The sky cleared again, but a very sharp norther harassed the people who had been soaked through during the night and who were still not dry. Many also had become hungry, since we of course had food supplies with us, but which were packed and unavailable at the time and also could not be prepared. According to the assurance of Consul Kläner we would have arrived at our destination after the passing of 18 hours at the most, and therefore would not need any special provisions for this short duration, for the same had some casks of half-cooked beef brought to our ship for nourishment on the trip, of which, however, very much was thrown into the sea and the remainder the greedy knew how to appropriate secretly, and none was left over for him to whom such an unjust behavior was not good enough. Fortunately, before my departure from Galveston I had provided a tolerable supply of wheat bread and therefore my own did not have to suffer any particular shortage. We steered toward Matagorda Bay under very cold weather accompanied by frequent rain showers and drew near to the entrance of the same on the afternoon of the 5th of December. We could now see land to the left and right. The Captain had a small flag hoisted as a signal that he called for a pilot who should guide his ship into the bay. After some time had passed a small boat actually drew near to our large steamship and soon thereafter a large, robust, strong man climbed on board, who was the requested pilot, an American, who only spoke English. According to his directions the ship before long put about to the right., before long to the left, so that we soon drew nearer to land on one side and soon to the other. Finally we were at the entrance to the bay around 4 o'clock in the afternoon. Already from a distance we experienced a frightfully roaring dashing of the ocean waves which is caused by the shoals found here, in that the waves break on a sandbank here and cause the frightful surge which