to tug and says, "What do you charge for getting a ship off?"
The price understood, a division of the spoil is easily agreed upon.
Away goes the pilot, runs the ship on shore on the freshest sandbank,
curses the Mississippi and everything else in creation; a tug comes up
very opportunely, a tidy bargain is concluded; the unfortunate pilot
forfeits 100l., his pilotage from the ship, and consoles himself the
following evening by pocketing 500l. from the tugman as his share of the
spoil, and then starts off again in search of another victim. Such, I
was informed by practical people, is a common feature in the pilotage of
these waters, and such it appears likely to continue.

The "Cherokee" is one of those vessels which belong to Mr. Law, of whom
I could get no information, expect that he had sprung up like a mushroom
to wealth and Filibustero notoriety. He is also the custodian, I
believe, of the three hundred thousand stand of arms ordered by Kossuth
for the purpose of "whipping" Russia and Austria, and establishing the
Republic of Hungary, unless by accident he found brains enough to become
a Hungarian Louis Napoleon; but Mr. Law's other vessel, called the
"Crescent City," and the Cuban Black Douglas, yclept "Purser Smith," are
perhaps better known. Peradventure, you imagine this latter to be a wild
hyena-looking man, with radiant red hair, fiery ferret eyes, and his
pockets swelled out with revolutionary documents for the benefit of the
discontented Cubans; but I can inform you, on the best authority, such
is not the case, for he was purser of the "Cherokee" this voyage. He
looks neither wild nor rabid, and is a grey-headed man, about fifty
years of age, with a dash of the Israelite in his appearance: he may or
he may not have Filibustero predilections--I did not presume to make
inquiry on the subject. And here I cannot but remark upon the childish
conduct of the parties concerned in the ridiculous "Crescent City and
Cuba question," although, having taken the view they did, the Spaniards
were of course perfectly right in maintaining it. It was unworthy of
the Spanish nation to take notice of the arrival of so uninfluential a
person as Purser Smith; and it was imprudent, inasmuch as it made him a
person of importance, and gave the party with whom he was supposed to be
connected a peg to hang grievances upon, and thus added to their
strength. It was equally unworthy of Mr. Law, when objection was made,
and a notification