ir
cables in this, and make sail into another world. Is the hand of interest
so grasping that the Lords of the Admiralty cannot administer justice to
old officers and promote four or six from the head of the list on a
general promotion as well as those very young officers, who most likely
were not in being when their seniors entered the Service, nor have many of
them seen a shot fired except in a preserve? It has been said that the
patronage for the promotion of officers in the Navy is entirely in the
hands of the First Lord, who is a civilian. If this be true, interest and
not service must be his order of the day. He cannot know the merits or
demerits of officers but from others. Possessing this ignorance, it is but
a natural conclusion, though no consolation, to those who suffer from it,
that he should only promote those who are recommended to him, and this
accounts for so many officers who entered the Navy at the conclusion or
since the termination of the war being made post-captains or commanders.
We read that promotion comes neither from the east nor the west. In a
recent instance it came from the north. It may be advisable for some old
officers to make a trip to the coast of Nova Zembla, get frozen in for two
or three years among the Nova Zemblians and Yakee Yaws, come home, present
themselves to the Admiralty, who would undoubtedly promote them, then they
would have an audience and receive knighthood from a higher personage.
This, as we all know, has occurred, and may occur again, more particularly
so if they should be able to add to the important information the last
persevering and gallant adventures brought to England. The French beg a
thousand pardons when they have committed any little indiscretion; an
Englishman says simply, "I beg your pardon." As such, gentle reader, I
sincerely beg yours, for having led you such a Tom Coxe's traverse.

[Illustration: ENTRANCE OF ST. IAGO, CUBA.
"My First Capture by the Spaniards," from a Drawing by the Author.]

To resume my narrative. We came to a conclusion that the schooner should
be fitted up as our tender, and as we had all taken a fancy to her she
should be called the _Fancy_. We put on board her a twelve-pounder
carronade and mounted four half-pound swivels on her gunwales. The second
lieutenant, as he captured her, was to command her; he took with him one
of the senior midshipmen and sixteen good seamen. After receiving his
orders and provisions he parted company