The wind being off the land, the water was smooth for the first three or four hours of the race; and during that time there was scarcely a pin to choose between the _Josefa_ and the brigantine, first one and then the other contriving to get the lead by a length or two, while the brig and the barque also made a neck-and-neck race of it but very gradually dropped astern until, by the time that we had run the land out of sight, the _Josefa_ and the brigantine were leading by nearly a mile, which lead we very gradually increased.
