On the afternoon of our return to Valparaiso, we put to sea.  From the cause I have mentioned respecting the strength of the sea-breeze, it is necessary to make a good offing from the land.  We therefore stood off shore till we had sunk the tops of the Andes below the horizon.  The name of the _Pacific_ was given to this ocean by the Spaniards, who first crossed the Isthmus of Panama, under the belief that the whole sea was always as calm as was then the portion they beheld.  Storms, if less frequent, are certainly not less violent than in other portions of the world.  We certainly very frequently experienced the fickleness of the elements.  As we were about to haul up to the northward, the wind suddenly shifted round to that very quarter, and then shifted somewhat to the eastward.  We stood away on the starboard-tack, but were evidently making a great deal of lee-way.  At last Captain Frankland, finding that no progress could be made, hove the ship to.  Jerry and I had by this time got pretty well accustomed to knocking about, so that we did not mind it.  We suffered the greatest inconvenience at our meals, because very often the soup which we had intended to put into our mouths without signal or warning rolled away into the waistcoat-pockets of our opposite neighbour.  The doctor more than once suffered from being the recipient of the contents of Jerry's plate as well as of mine; but he took it very good-naturedly, and as he very soon returned us the compliment, we were all square.  Not long after dinner, while we were on deck, Ben Yool, who was aloft, hailed to say that he saw bearing right down for us a large brig, and, considering the gale, that she was carrying a wonderful press of canvas.  Her courses were brailed up, but her topsails were set, while the top-gallant-sails and royals were flying away in ribbons, except the main-royal, which, with the mast, had gone over the side.  We accordingly all looked out for her.  We soon, as we rose to the summit of a long rolling sea, caught sight of her, plunging over the foaming waters and often half buried in them.  There was something very strange in her appearance, and in the way she came tearing along through the waters.  Captain Frankland looked at her attentively through his glass.