Peru.
Being a "sub" on board of her, and consequently subject to the
authorities that be, when the _Porpoise_ was obliged to abandon the
fragrant mangrove swamps at the mouth of the Congo river, where we had
been enjoying ourselves for over a twelvemonth amidst the delights of a
deadly miasma that brought on perpetual low fever, and as constant a
consumption of quinine and bottled beer to counteract its effects, I was
of course forced to accompany her across the Atlantic and round the Horn
to her allotted destination.

Thence "this plain unvarnished tale," which is as clear as mud in a
ditch, although you needn't believe it if you don't like--there is no
compulsion required to make hungry people eat roast mutton!

Tom Finch, the lieutenant in command of the _Porpoise_, who had got his
promotion through the death vacancy of his senior at Cape Coast Castle--
he was just ahead of me on the roster, luckily for him--was one of the
jolliest fellows I ever sailed with or under, since I entered the
service; and I'm sure I've known a few "swabs" in my time!

Unlike some junior officers I could name, when suddenly intrusted with
the reins of power, there was nothing of the martinet about Tom, even on
the first day he assumed his new rank, when a little extra pomposity
might have been excusable. But no, he gave himself no airs or graces
whatever.

He was the same Tom Finch who had chaffed and larked and talked
confidence with me in the gunroom, now that he trod the quarter-deck "in
all his war paint," as I told him somewhat impudently, the "skipper" of
HMS _Porpoise_, "paddle sloop, 6 guns," as she was described in the
_Navy List_--the same unaffected, jovial, good-natured sailor whom
everybody liked, men and messmates alike. His only weakness was a love
for practical joking, which he would carry out sometimes, perhaps, to a
rather ticklish extent--for his own good, that is, as he never knowingly
did anyone else an injury by it.

"What will you do with your monkey?" I said, when the mail brought in
our orders from the commodore on the West Coast for us to sail for Monte
Video at once, and there await our further instructions--which would be
sent on from England; "what will you do with him when we go?"

"Take him with me of course," answered Tom; "why shouldn't I?"

"Well, I don't see any reason against it certainly," I replied; "now
that you are captain of the ship, and can do as you please without
asking anybody's lea