master comes next. He was a little, natty man; we presumed
he had been rolled down Deal beach in his infancy, where pebbles without
number must have come in rude contact with his face, for it was cruelly
marred. He had made some trips in the East India Service, which had given
him an air of consequence. He was not more than twenty-four years of age,
and certainly clever in his profession. I will now bring forward the
doctor, who appeared to doctor everybody but himself. He was every inch a
son of Erin, could be agreeable or the reverse as the fit seized him, fond
of argument, fond of rum, and sometimes fond of fighting. To see him put
his hand to his mouth was painful; it was so tremulous that half the
contents of what he eat or drank fell from it, yet he was never tipsy,
although the contents of three bottles of port wine found their way very
glibly down his throat at a sitting.

Now I will have a dead-set at the purser, who was generally purseless. He
was the gayest of the gay, very tall, very expensive, and always in love.
The first fiddle of the mess and caterer, fond of going on a boat
expedition, very fond of prize-money, and as fond of getting rid of it. He
used to say, "It was a terrible mistake making me a purser. I shall never
be able to clear my accounts," and this was literally the case. Some years
afterwards he was appointed to a large frigate, but by the irregularity of
his conduct, although his captain was his friend, he was by a
court-martial dismissed the Service. When I heard this I was much
concerned, as there were some good points about him. I have now handed up
all the gun-room officers. Other characters in the ship I shall not
describe; some were good, some bad, and some indifferent, but I am happy
to remark the first-named preponderated. We made the Grand Cayman, and
sent a cutter to the shore to purchase turtle and fruit. In about an hour
and a half she came off with three turtle, some yams, plantains,
cocoa-nuts, and a few half-starved fowls. I had cautioned the purser not
to buy any grunters, as those poor animals blown out with water we had
purchased from these honest islanders in days of yore, were still fresh in
my memory.

The same evening we made Cape Antonio, and cruised between that cape and
the Loggerhead Keys for some days without seeing anything but two American
vessels from New Orleans. One of them gave us notice of a Mexican armed
zebec ready to sail with treasure from Mexico for t