ered
around a dirty table playing at cards by the light from a flame of a bit
of rope's-end stuck in a calabash of grease. They laid down their cards
when I came in, and stared at me in a very forbidding fashion. However,
I paid no attention to them, but sat down at a table at some little
distance, and by-and-by the landlord, a little pot-bellied, red-faced
Frenchman, brought me a glass of hot rum and a dish of greasy stew
seasoned with garlic. He would have entered into talk with me, but I
soon gave him to understand that I had no appetite for conversation just
at this time; so after having made a bargain for lodgings during the
night, he withdrew to a bench in the farther corner of the room, where
I presently saw him fall asleep.

If I had hoped to escape from meeting my own countrymen, I soon
discovered that I was to be sadly disappointed, for before I had been in
the place a quarter of an hour I found that at least half the fellows
around the table were Englishmen. They were the most villanous,
evil-looking set of men that I had beheld in a long time, and I could
not but feel uneasy, for I had with me gold and silver money to the
value of between ten and eleven guineas, and by their muttering together
and looking in my direction now and then I knew that they were talking
concerning me.

Presently one of the fellows got up from the table and came over to the
place where I sat.

"Look 'ee, messmate," said he, seating himself upon the corner of the
table beside me; "be ye English, French, Dutch, Portuguese, or what?"
At first I was of a mind to deny being an Englishman, but on second
thoughts I perceived that it would be useless to do so, there being the
scum of so many peoples at that place that I could not hope to escape
exposure.

"Why, shipmate," said I, "I'm an Englishman."

"Where do ye hail from?" said he.

"Over yonder," said I, pointing in the direction of the _Lavinia_.

"Did ye come aboard of the craft that ran into the harbor to-day?"

I nodded my head.

"Did ye come ashore without leave?"

I nodded my head again.

The others had all laid down their cards and were looking at us by this
time, and I knew not what would have been the upshot of the matter had
not the door just then been flung open and a great rough fellow come
stumping into the place.

"Well," he bawled, in a loud, hoarse voice, "poor Ned is on his way to
h--l hot-foot to-night. I just came by his stew-hole over yonder.
Pah!"--