John says that they set off from New Orleans at ten o'clock Christmas night on board a steamboat. Three days and three nights had passed before they saw land again. He describes the stormy journey and mentions that a number of men were ill.

By now they're about sixty miles the other side of Galvaston. He says that a shark followed the boat for two hours one day. They've run out of coffee and they hope a boat will arrive tonight with a supply of food.