w themselves when called upon, I entered my own quarters and hastily
shifted from my uniform into a somewhat soiled suit of "whites" and a
pith hat that had doubtless once been the property of one of the former
inhabitants of the place--and which I had appropriated in view of some
such contingency as the present--and otherwise made such preparations as
were possible for the suitable reception of our expected visitors.

We had only just barely completed our preparations when the strange
brig, under topsails and fore-topmast staysail, came sweeping round the
eastern extremity of the island, bracing sharp up as she did so and
making a short "leg" athwart the anchorage, toward the mainland. Then,
tacking very smartly, even under such short canvas as she was showing,
she headed well up for the line of buoys which had been laid down as
moorings, and, splendidly handled, presently came up head to wind,
settling away both topsail-yards to the caps as she did so, and, while
her crew clewed up the topsails and hauled down the staysail, glided,
with the way which she still had on her, up to the weathermost buoy, to
which a hawser was promptly run out and made fast. Then, as about a
dozen hands climbed into the fore and main rigging and made their
leisurely way aloft for the purpose of rolling up the topsails, a light,
handsome gig was dropped into the water from the starboard quarter
davits and presumably hauled alongside the gangway; but this I could not
see, as she was presenting her port broadside to us--which, by the way,
I noticed, was garnished with five grinning twelve-pounders. She was a
most beautiful vessel, lying long and low upon the water, her hull
painted all black, from her rail to her copper, relieved only by a
single narrow white stripe running along her sheer-strake from her white
figure-head to the rather elaborate white scroll-work that decorated her
quarter. She was grandly sparred, with very heavy lower-masts, long
mastheads, painted white, very taunt topmasts, topgallant and royal-
masts, stayed to a hair, with a slight rake aft, and accurately
parallel, and enormously long yards. The French ensign floated lazily
from the end of her standing gaff.

As I stood under the shade of the verandah, admiring this sea beauty,
the gig came foaming round under her stern, propelled by four oarsmen,
and with a white-clad figure in the stern-sheets, and headed toward the
wharf, alongside a flight of steps in which sh