cloisters.

Upon a still nigher approach, this appearance was modified, and the true
character of the vessel was plain--a Spanish merchantman of the first
class, carrying negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight, from one
colonial port to another. A very large, and, in its time, a very fine
vessel, such as in those days were at intervals encountered along that
main; sometimes superseded Acapulco treasure-ships, or retired frigates
of the Spanish king's navy, which, like superannuated Italian palaces,
still, under a decline of masters, preserved signs of former state.

As the whale-boat drew more and more nigh, the cause of the peculiar
pipe-clayed aspect of the stranger was seen in the slovenly neglect
pervading her. The spars, ropes, and great part of the bulwarks, looked
woolly, from long unacquaintance with the scraper, tar, and the brush.
Her keel seemed laid, her ribs put together, and she launched, from
Ezekiel's Valley of Dry Bones.

In the present business in which she was engaged, the ship's general
model and rig appeared to have undergone no material change from their
original warlike and Froissart pattern. However, no guns were seen.

The tops were large, and were railed about with what had once been
octagonal net-work, all now in sad disrepair. These tops hung overhead
like three ruinous aviaries, in one of which was seen, perched, on a
ratlin, a white noddy, a strange fowl, so called from its lethargic,
somnambulistic character, being frequently caught by hand at sea.
Battered and mouldy, the castellated forecastle seemed some ancient
turret, long ago taken by assault, and then left to decay. Toward the
stern, two high-raised quarter galleries--the balustrades here and there
covered with dry, tindery sea-moss--opening out from the unoccupied
state-cabin, whose dead-lights, for all the mild weather, were
hermetically closed and calked--these tenantless balconies hung over the
sea as if it were the grand Venetian canal. But the principal relic of
faded grandeur was the ample oval of the shield-like stern-piece,
intricately carved with the arms of Castile and Leon, medallioned about
by groups of mythological or symbolical devices; uppermost and central
of which was a dark satyr in a mask, holding his foot on the prostrate
neck of a writhing figure, likewise masked.

Whether the ship had a figure-head, or only a plain beak, was not quite
certain, owing to canvas wrapped about that part, either to protec