aist, the breast and face tattooed in different designs,
by scarring the skin with a knife.

When one of those fellows came down the street on a dog-trot, singing
"Hoo! hoo! hoo! hoo!" I would get out of his way quickly. It was a
wonder to me how they could balance those heavy tubs on their heads and
keep swinging their arms at the same time.

The native liquor is cashass, distilled from sugar-cane. Take equal
parts of pure alcohol and water, put in a very liberal quantity of
creosote, and you will have a good sample of cashass--flavour, smell,
and strength will be the same as the genuine article. One evening, on
returning to the boarding-house, there was quite an excitement in the
dining-room. My friend Jimmy was laid out on the table, with three men
holding him down; he was in spasms and frothing at the mouth. My
impression was that he had been poisoned. After a while he quieted down
and went to sleep. The next morning he confidentially remarked to me
that he had no more use for any of "that ---- cashass." My reason for
describing the liquor is to give an idea of its strength. Once, when I
was on an English man-of-war, it was probably the cause of a friend's
being drowned and of getting me into a serious scrape.

I would frequently take a stroll down to the military dock where the
boat from the man-of-war landed. It was interesting to observe the
peculiarities of the different nationalities. The Americans were the
most intelligent, very neat in appearance, their clothing of fine
material and well made, dark blue flannel shirts embroidered with black
silk, a white silk star on each corner of the wide collars, a silk
ribbon with the name of the ship in gilt letters on the sailor hats.
When their boats landed the officers would get out, then the boat's
crew, with the exception of one man, going where they pleased, returning
after a time, and pulling off to their ship. Next were the Englishmen.
Their clothes fitted awkwardly. In appearance they were not so bright
and cheerful. No going ashore for them! A midshipman was always in
charge of the boat, every man being required to remain in his seat. The
Italians, Spanish, French, and Brazilians were a dirty, barefooted lot,
probably not one in ten being able to read or write. The English always
had difficulty in getting men for the navy. Low wages, flogging with the
cat-o'-nine-tails, and no chance for promotion, were the chief reasons.
A law was passed allowing any seaman