ed, so as to gain all the
information they could; and we, accordingly, had opportunities offered
us of going on shore and making excursions into the interior. We
visited Jerusalem, Cairo, Algiers, Athens, and many other places of
interest. Halliday and I found our acquirements as linguists of very
considerable value.

I cannot stop, however, to describe our adventures. Three years passed
rapidly away, and we returned home nearly full-grown men, with a greatly
increased stock of nautical and general knowledge.

We went, during our brief stay on shore, to visit Andrew Spurling; who
listened eagerly to our accounts of what we had seen, and was delighted
when I presented him with several really valuable volumes which I had
picked up at Cairo. "You have amply repaid me, Mr Blore," he
exclaimed, fondly clutching the books. "I knew you would find an
immense advantage from your knowledge of the chief language of the East,
and let me now advise you to study Spanish; it is spoken over a large
portion of the globe, and you are sure to find a use for it."

I so far followed his advice as to send for a Spanish grammar and
dictionary, which I intended to use as soon as I had leisure. My stay
on shore, however, was short; for in a couple of weeks I was appointed
to the _Viper_, a ten-gun brig destined for the coast of Africa. Her
commander knew my family, and had offered to take me. And I found
Halliday on board, he having been appointed to her by the Admiralty.

She was a very different craft from the fine frigate to which I had
before belonged. She was of narrow beam, and carried taunt masts and
square yards; indeed, we all saw that she would require careful handling
to avoid being capsized. But she was a new, tidy, fast little craft,
and no one on board allowed forebodings of evil to trouble his mind.
The commander did not express his opinion till we were clear of the
Channel, when he addressed the crew.

"You will have to be smart in shortening sail, my lads," he said, after
making some other observations. "The last man off the lower deck when
the hands are turned up must look out for the consequences."

They all knew what that meant,--a "black listing," "six water grog," or
walking the deck with a shot in each hand during a watch. Still, though
they did not like it, they knew it was for the good of all. And
besides, we were continually exercised in shortening and making sail, to
get the crew into proper discipl