side.

Murray went in his gig, accompanied by Archie; Adair had command of the
pinnace, a mate and Desmond going with him; Mr Mildmay commanded the
cutter, accompanied by Billy Blueblazes; and Dicky Duff was in the
boatswain's boat. The commodore led the expedition in his own gig, in
the stem of which sat, as coxswain, Tom Bashan, noted as the biggest man
in the fleet--even the carpenter of the _Opal_ looked but of ordinary
size alongside him. He had followed Captain Douce from ship to ship,
and had often rendered his commander essential service, when the little
man might otherwise have come to serious grief. Bashan had the
affection for his chief which a nurse entertains for the child under her
charge, and considered it his especial duty, as far as he had power, to
keep him out of harm--not that the commodore ever suspected that his
subordinate entertained such a notion; he always spoke of him as an
honest, harmless fellow, who knew his duty and did it.

The bar being tolerably smooth, the boats crossed without any accident,
the crews giving way with a will up the river. The tide was flowing, so
they made rapid progress.

"This is something like our expedition up the San Juan de Nicaragua,"
observed Desmond to Adair. "Except that we had white fellows to fight
instead of Arabs, and a hot stream to pull against instead of having the
tide with us."

"The tide will turn before long," answered Adair; "and if the boats get
aground we may find these same Arabs rather tough customers. However,
we must look out to avoid the contingency, and if we can take the
fellows by surprise, we may manage to get hold of a good number of
slaves."

The tide before long, as Adair predicted, began to ebb, and the boats
made much slower progress than before. It was nearly nightfall when
they got up to Monkey Island, inside of which the commodore ordered them
to anchor; the boats being brought up close together, the awnings were
spread, the mainbrace spliced, and other preparations made for passing
the night. An extra allowance was served out to induce the men to
swallow the quinine mixed with it; for though some made wry faces, their
love of grog induced them to overcome their objection to the bitter
taste.

After the grog, songs were sung alternately by the crew of each boat,
the commodore, who had nothing of the martinet about him, being always
ready to encourage his men to amuse themselves harmlessly; and they were
yet too f