limy shallows, and
veritable negroes inhabiting their banks; yet here were all the three,
Alick Murray, Jack Rogers, and Terence Adair, collected on board Her
Majesty's brig of war _Archer_, commanded by Captain Grant. Alick had
come out in the brig from England, the other two, after being
shipwrecked, nearly drowned, murdered, and starved, eaten up by sharks,
and having undergone I do not know how many other terrible dangers, had
at last been picked up by the _Archer_, their own ship, the _Ranger_
frigate, being they did not exactly know where. This last circumstance
did not probably weigh very much with them. Midshipmen are not
generally given to suffer from over anxiety from affairs terrestrial;
but Rogers certainly did wish that he could let his family know that he
was well, and picked up again, after having, as was supposed, gone down
in a slaver the frigate had captured off the African coast. They were
capital fellows, those three old friends of mine. Rogers was a good
specimen of the Englishman--genus middy--so was Paddy Adair of Green
Erin's isle, full of fun and frolic; and a more gentlemanly,
right-minded lad than Alick Murray Scotland never sent forth from her
rich valleys or rugged mountains. He too was proud of Scotland, and
ever jealous to uphold the name and fame of the land of his birth.

The _Archer_ was a fine brig, and Captain Grant was a first-rate
officer. When naval officers or seamen go on board ships of war they
have to take their share of the duty with the rest of the crew; so
Rogers and Adair found that they should have plenty of employment, even
though they might not for some time be able to join their own ship.
Captain Grant considered that idleness is the mother of all vice, so he
took care that no one in his ship should be idle, and certainly he had
the knack of making good seamen of all who sailed with him.

The midshipmen's berth in the _Archer_ was a very happy place, because
the occupants were, with few exceptions, gentlemanly, well-disposed,
and, more than all, well and religiously educated young men. I do not
mean to say by that, that they always acted with the wisdom and
discretion of a bench of judges. Far from that. They were merry,
light-hearted fellows, full of fun and frolic, but they could be grave,
and treat serious things as they ought to be treated, with reverence and
respect. Jack and Paddy quickly found themselves perfectly at home
among them. The _Archer_ had