have permitted so much talking, then bundled us
all incontinently out of the sick bay, Captain Farmer included.

Four days later we arrived off Funchal, passing, at the eastern
extremity of the island, Machico Bay, where the lovers mentioned by
Larkyns landed and lived and died, according to the legend. This, the
Spanish captain said was quite true, for he had seen the grave himself
and the little church erected to their memory, a statement that quite
delighted our friend Larkyns, as he was able to throw it in the teeth of
Mr Stormcock as soon as he heard it, in refutation of the base calumny
of the latter in asserting that he had invented the yarn he told us at
mess.

I was very sorry when Don Ferdinando left the ship, for his misfortunes
and the fact of my having been in the boat that rescued him, made him
seem like an old friend whom I had known for years, although we had only
been such a short time acquainted.

He was very kind, too, in noticing me; and, before he was rowed ashore
in the captain's gig, he presented me with a real gold medallion with
the image and superscription stamped thereon of Saint Nicholas, the
protector of all sailors. The Spanish captain told me that this had
originally belonged to the great navigator, Christopher Columbus, of
whom he was a distant descendant, and that it had been in his family for
generations. He had always worn it, he said, next his heart as a
preservative against shipwreck, and he fervently believed it was owing
to his having it on him that he had been so miraculously saved when
everyone else who had been on board _La Bella Catarina_ with him had
perished.

His now giving it to me was the most practical proof of his friendship
he could offer, as he valued it beyond anything he possessed, and I only
took it for fear of hurting his feelings, for I did not like to deprive
him of it. He was, in truth, a noble fellow, and showed that his
gratitude did not merely lie in mere empty words and idle compliments.

No, "out of sight out of mind" was not his guiding maxim, like it is of
some people whom we all have met in the course of our lives; for, even
after he had uttered his farewell as he rowed away from the ship in the
captain's gig, wishing us with a graceful wave of the hand "A Dios!" he
did not forget us, sending back by the coxswain a splendid present of
flowers and fruit and vegetables, almost loading the gig, indeed, for
the acceptance of the wardroom and gunroom