ely confined, awaiting his trial for the murder
of Count ----, the result of which would be, without doubt, against
him. Clara, believing the general report of my death, had entered the
Ursuline Convent to begin her novitiate; and I was told that if I was
to be seen in Matanzas, the _garrote_, or chain-gang, was all that I
could expect. Your father then told me that if I would consent to
accompany Captain Hopkins, he would sail in my place to Matanzas, and
do his utmost for his nephew and niece. I could not help but see the
wisdom of this arrangement, and acceded to it. We sailed from Boston
to Stockholm, from thence to Rotterdam, and from thence to Batavia. A
freight offering for Canton, we went to that port, and from thence
came home, after an absence of two years and a half. In the meantime
Don Pedro had been tried, and sentenced to death; but by the exertions
of your father, who wrought faithfully in his behalf, his sentence was
commuted, first to twenty, and then to twelve years in the gallies,
or, as it is in Cuba, the chain-gang. His efforts to see Clara, in
order to disabuse her mind of the belief of my death, was abortive;
and she, after finishing her year as a novice, took the veil--and she
is now a nun in the Ursuline Convent at Matanzas, while her noble
brother is a slave, with felons, laboring with the cursed chain-gang
in the same city to which we are bound. Now, boys, do you wonder that
when I found myself under orders to go again to the scene of all this
misery I was affected, and that a melancholy has possessed me which
has increased as the voyage has progressed? I did determine at first
that I would leave the ship at Gibralter and go home, but I dreaded to
part with my shipmates. I shall not go ashore while we lay at Matanzas
for many reasons, though I should incur no risk, I think. Everybody
who knew me in Matanzas believes me dead long since; and six years of
seafaring life in every climate, changes one strangely. But the wind
has veered again and freshened considerably since I began my yarn. It
looks some as if we might catch a norther by way of variety. Brewster
will have to shorten sail in his watch, I reckon, and maybe keep the
lead going if we make much leeway. Come, Bill, it is 4 o'clock, and a
little past."

"Eight bells, there, for'ard!" shouted the third mate. "Call the
watch! Rouse Brewster, Frank, will you?"

The sleepy, yawning starboard watch were soon on deck, half-dressed,
and snuffi