William H. Macomb executive officer, and Passed-Midshipmen Muse, Spotts, and J. W. A. Nicholson, were the watch-officers; Wilson purser, and Abernethy surgeon.  The latter was caterer of the mess, and we all made an advance of cash for him to lay in the necessary mess-stores.  To enable us to prepare for so long a voyage and for an indefinite sojourn in that far-off country, the War Department had authorized us to draw six months’ pay in advance, which sum of money we invested in surplus clothing and such other things as seemed to us necessary.  At last the ship was ready, and was towed down abreast of Fort Columbus, where we were conveyed on board, and on the 14th of July, 1846, we were towed to sea by a steam-tug, and cast off:  Colonel R. B. Mason, still superintendent of the general recruiting service, accompanied us down the bay and out to sea, returning with the tug.  A few other friends were of the party, but at last they left us, and we were alone upon the sea, and the sailors were busy with the sails and ropes.  The Lexington was an old ship, changed from a sloop-of-war to a store-ship, with an after-cabin, a “ward-room,” and “between-decks.”  In the cabin were Captains Bailey and Tompkins, with whom messed the purser, Wilson.  In the ward-room were all the other officers, two in each state-room; and Minor, being an extra lieutenant, had to sleep in a hammock slung in the ward-room.  Ord and I roomed together; Halleck and Loeser and the others were scattered about.  The men were arranged in bunks “between-decks,” one set along the sides of the ship, and another, double tier, amidships.  The crew were slung in hammocks well forward.  Of these there were about fifty.  We at once subdivided the company into four squads, under the four lieutenants of the company, and arranged with the naval officers that our men should serve on deck by squads, after the manner of their watches; that the sailors should do all the work aloft, and the soldiers on deck.

On fair days we drilled our men at the manual, and generally kept them employed as much as possible, giving great attention to the police and cleanliness of their dress and bunks; and so successful were we in this, that, though the voyage lasted nearly two hundred days, every man was able to leave the ship and march up the hill to the fort at Monterey, California, carrying his own knapsack and equipments.

The voyage from New York to Rio Janeiro was without accident or any thing to vary the usual monotony.  We soon settled down to the humdrum of a long voyage, reading some, not much; playing games, but never gambling; and chiefly engaged in eating our meals regularly.  In crossing the equator we had the usual visit of Neptune and his wife, who, with a large razor and a bucket of soapsuds, came over the sides and shaved some of the greenhorns; but naval etiquette exempted the officers, and Neptune was not permitted to come aft of the mizzen-mast.  At last, after sixty