to get our full share of leave, and enjoyed ourselves immensely, but as
nothing occurred particularly worthy of note, I shall not enter into
details as to the pranks we played, and our several modes of seeking
enjoyment.

On the 4th of January, 1794, we received orders to take on board 150
supernumeraries for the garrison at Toulon, the rumour of the proposed
fleet under Lord Hood having in the meantime become an accomplished
fact, and that gallant officer having accepted the surrender of the port
from the Toulonese, in trust for Louis XVII. We received these
supernumeraries on board early next morning, and sailed immediately
after the completion of the embarkation.

It took us a week to make the passage, the wind being fair but light,
and the weather beautiful during the whole time. On the fourth day out,
poor old Rawlings, the master, complained of severe shooting pains in
the head, accompanied by giddiness and nausea, and the next day found
him confined to his berth in a high fever.

We arrived off the port at about 10 p.m. It was a beautiful night, the
moon, just entering her second quarter, beamed softly down upon us from
the cloudless, star-spangled sky, and a light air of wind from the
southward just filled our sails and fanned us along at a rate of about
four knots. When about five miles off, we hoisted lights for a pilot,
the skipper being anxious to get in that night, so as to discharge the
supernumeraries the first thing in the morning, the vessel being
somewhat crowded. Three-quarters of an hour elapsed, during which we
looked in vain for a boat coming off to us, when, having approached
within a couple of miles of the entrance to the harbour, Captain Hood
gave orders for the ship to be hove-to.

Another half-hour passed away, and still no sign of a pilot.

"If poor Rawlings had not been in the sick-bay--aw--we should have been
snugly at anchor by this time," said the skipper to Mr Annesley. "I'll
be bound to say that the--aw--old fellow has been in and out of the
place a dozen times at least, and he would have taken us in like a--ah--
like a shot."

"Quite likely, sir," returned Mr Annesley, with his telescope to his
eye; "I think it would be difficult to name a port which he has _not_
been into. It is unfortunate that he should be laid up just at this
juncture. They must be very early birds in Toulon, or surely somebody
would have made out our lights before this. And,"--he lowered his
teles