re.

The captain seemed really grateful for the service we had rendered him
by preventing him from running on the reef. He invited us down to his
cabin, and asked us if we would like to turn in and rest while our
clothes were drying.

"Will you tell him that we are dying of thirst," exclaimed Halliday,
"and that we should not object to have something to eat first?"

I explained that we had had no food except oysters since the previous
evening, and that we should be grateful if he would order us some
supper--for the Spanish dinner-hour had long passed.

"Of course," he observed; "I forgot that,"--and he immediately ordered
some water and light wine to be placed on the table. He seemed amused
at the quantity we drank; having, I suspect, had very little experience
of the way men feel who have been exposed to hunger and thirst, as we
had been, for so many hours. Some light food was then brought in, to
which we did ample justice.

On my mentioning Ben to him, he observed,--"He will be taken good care
of by the black Antonio; he understands your language."

The captain appeared to be a quiet, gentlemanly man; but it struck me at
once that he was not the sort of person to keep a disorderly crew and a
number of troops and passengers in order. He again expressed himself
deeply obliged to us for the service we had rendered him; and taking a
small telescope in a case from the side-cabin, begged I would accept it
as a mark of his gratitude. "There are some aboard here who pretend to
understand better than I do how the ship should be managed; and it was
by their advice that I was steering the course I was doing when I fell
in with you," he observed.

I told Boxall what the captain had said.

"A pretty sort of commander he must be, to allow civilians, even though
they may be scientific men, to interfere with the navigation of the
ship," he observed. "For my part, I should tell them to keep as sharp a
look-out as they liked upon the spars and ship, but to let me steer the
course I considered the best."

After supper we thankfully turned in--the captain politely giving his
berth to Boxall, while two of the lieutenants begged that Halliday and I
would occupy theirs. When we left the deck I observed that the wind had
completely fallen, and I could not help wishing that we had been further
off from the reef. The frigate, I should have said, had come through
the Straits of Gibraltar, from Malaga or some other port on the