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The boy signed the articles , received his advance , laid out a little of it in clothes , and spent the rest , and was ready to go on board , when , upon the morning of sailing , he heard that the ship was bound upon the North-west Coast , on a two or three years ' voyage , and was not going to Europe . To make our condition still worse , the wind came out due east , just after sundown , and it blew a gale dead ahead , with hail and sleet , and a thick fog , so that we could not see half the length of the ship . With a fair wind we soon ran clear of the field-ice , and by noon had only the stray islands floating far and near upon the ocean . However , we were spared any further experience on the point ; for the next day , when we must have been near the Cape of Pillars , which is the south-west point of the mouth of the straits , a gale set in from the eastward , with a heavy fog , so that we could not see half of the ship 's length ahead . This kind of ice is much more dangerous than the large islands , for those can be seen at a distance , and kept away from ; but the field-ice , floating in great quantities , and covering the ocean for miles and miles , in pieces of every size-large , flat , and broken cakes , with here and there an island rising twenty and thirty feet , and as large as the ship 's hull ; - this , it is very difficult to sheer clear of . All our spare spars were taken on board and lashed ; our water-casks secured ; and our live stock , consisting of four bullocks , a dozen sheep , a dozen or more pigs , and three or four dozen of poultry , were all stowed away in their different quarters : the bullocks in the long-boat , the sheep in a pen on the fore-hatch , and the pigs in a sty under the bows of the long-boat , and the poultry in their proper coop ; and the jolly-boat was full of hay for the sheep and bullocks . The Saturday night before our sailing , I spent an hour in the oven , and took leave of my Kanaka friends ; and , really , this was the only thing connected with leaving California which was in any way unpleasant . My feet were just off the stanchion , when she struck fairly into the middle of the sea , and it washed her fore and aft , burying her in the water .