bout it.

CHAPTER XXXVI.

WE ARE CARRIED BEFORE THE CONSUL AND CAPTAIN

WE HAD been inmates of the Calabooza Beretanee about two weeks, when,
one morning, Captain Bob, coming from the bath, in a state of utter
nudity, brought into the building an armful of old tappa, and began
to dress to go out.

The operation was quite simple. The tappa--of the coarsest kind--was
in one long, heavy piece; and, fastening one end to a column of
Habiscus wood supporting the Calabooza, he went off a few paces, and
putting the other about his waist, wound himself right up to the
post. This unique costume, in rotundity something like a farthingale,
added immensely to his large hulk; so much so that he fairly waddled
in his gait. But he was only adhering to the fashion of his fathers;
for, in the olden time, the "Kihee," or big girdle, was quite the
mode for both sexes. Bob, despising recent innovations, still clung
to it. He was a gentleman of the old school--one of the last of the
Kihees.

He now told us that he had orders to take us before the consul.
Nothing loth, we formed in procession; and, with the old man at our
head, sighing and labouring like an engine, and flanked by a guard of
some twenty natives, we started for the village.

Arrived at the consular office, we found Wilson there, and four or
five Europeans, seated in a row facing us; probably with the view of
presenting as judicial an appearance as possible.

On one side was a couch, where Captain Guy reclined. He looked
convalescent; and, as we found out, intended soon to go aboard his
ship. He said nothing, but left everything to the consul.

The latter now rose, and, drawing forth a paper from a large roll tied
with red tape, commenced reading aloud.

It purported to be, "the affidavit of John Jennin, first officer of
the British Colonial Barque Julia; Guy, Master;" and proved to be a
long statement of matters, from the time of leaving Sydney, down to
our arrival in the harbour. Though artfully drawn up so as to bear
hard against every one of us, it was pretty correct in the de-.
tails; excepting that it was wholly silent as to the manifold
derelictions of the mate himself--a fact which imparted unusual
significance to the concluding sentence, "And furthermore, this
deponent sayeth not."

No comments were made, although we all looked round for the mate to
see whether it was possible that he could have authorized this use of
his name. But he was not present.