Gold Rush Letters of the Reverend James Rogers For 36 hours from Havana we have had favorable winds, but this PM we have it dead ahead. The engine plays slowly as the men are sending everything down, all the topmasts, yards, gaffs, all, all to the lowest notch. This will releave the vessel somewhat and we will make the better speed. Even now the engine plays quicker. I just now laid hold of the arm of a good-natured fellow passenger, and the way we took the turns on the quarter-deck would afford amusement for old sailors, I am sure. Some have turned back from their purpose to visit the gold region. Several stayed on board the Ohio and went to New Orleans. I think we have not yet begun to endure. If we do not meet with something five times as bad as anything we have yet seen, we will get off ten times as well as many who have lived to get thro' to Eldorado. For my part, I feel like going on. I would not turn back for a salary. Sunday, Oct. 28th. I did intend to write yesterday, but got interested in an article in the Democratic Review which I would not leave till finished. In the evening I found a party on deck, under the awning, enjoying the pleasant moonlight while they sang sacred music. I could not leave them in order to write. There being no other preacher on board as I can learn, I have offered my services for the day. I find many who wish to have religious exercises, and some who will assist in singing or in any other way they can. I have left it with two to make arrangements and call me when ready. It has been so squally and rainy so far today (4 PM) that I have not yet been called upon. We hope for a pleasant moonlight evening, like iast evening, then I will hold forth by the light of the moon. I have noticed this PM very many small Bibles among the passengers on the quarter-deck. It may be that there was a greater proportion there than elsewhere in the ship, but it did look like a disposition to regard the Sabbath. Or, at least, it seemed to show no determination, as yet, to cast away the instructions of our childhood. Many passengers are exceedingly profane, but others show a disgust at the language they hear. I think they overdid the first three days and are using less every day. Monday, Oct. 29th. We are expecting to get to Chagres or make the land about midnight. The morning will probably be much interrupted by the business of getting on shore, and you must wait till the next mail steamer for my account of making a landing and crossing the Isthmus. I will fold this, envelope it, and direct it tonight, but not seal it. If you get it without further additions, you may suppose me safe on land again, thankful for having had so pleasant and so prosperous a voyage. Your son James. 266