r even of balls or ra-outes, as our neighbours say;
Polka forfend I should blaspheme her deity, depreciate her loudly
laudable energies, or apostrophize her strangely muscular hamstrings! I
only maintain that a night passed at sea, off the southern Spanish coast
in fine weather, does not yield to the best of nights.

The observation of the land, of the passing sails, and the management of
our own, and the various phenomena of sea and sky, having gradually
yielded to sunset and twilight--and these in their turn leaving the
vessel to its solitude, conversation became amusing between people of
such different origin, habits, and ideas, brought together by chance,
drawn nearer to each other by the force of circumstances, and by having
partaken of the same buffetings. The Moor would then offer a cup of his
coffee, or rather, according to the Oriental custom, a thimbleful of his
quintessence of that exquisite berry. Our French ensign was a tolerable
musician, and was easily prevailed on to unpack his cornet-a-piston, and
to astonish the solitude of the night, and the denizens of the deep, by
the execution of the favourite airs of Auber and Halevy. Sometimes a
bark too distant to be visible would hail us on hearing these unusual
strains; and faint sounds of applause would arrive as if from wandering
naiads.

At length one afternoon brought us in sight of Gibraltar. And now, lest
we should arrive without further mishap, our precious Provencal took
care to give us a parting proof of his incapacity,--which however,
thanks to our good fortune, did not bring upon us the annoyance it
threatened. The rock of Gibraltar was before us the whole of the
following day; but there appeared also in sight, somewhat to its left,
and at a much greater distance, a sort of double mountain, apparently
divided from the middle upwards by a wedge-formed cleft. The captain
replied to all questions by describing this object as consisting of two
distinct mountains, which he pronounced to be no others than the two
Pillars of Hercules,--promising us that the next morning we should see
them separated by the entire width of the Straits.

Far from suspecting the authenticity of this explanation, I innocently
inquired what was the large rock (Gibraltar itself) apparently much
nearer to us. "Oh!" he replied, "it was some promontory on the coast of
Andalucia, the name of which had escaped his memory;" adding that we
steered very slightly to the left of the said