day a despatch came from the port captain of Montevideo,
commanding the coastguards to render the _Spray_ every assistance.
This, however, was not necessary, for a guard was already on the
alert, and making all the ado that would become the wreck of a steamer
with a thousand emigrants aboard. The same messenger brought word from
the port captain that he would despatch a steam-tug to tow the _Spray_
to Montevideo. The officer was as good as his word; a powerful tug
arrived on the following day; but, to make a long story short, with
the help of the German and one soldier and one Italian, called "Angel
of Milan," I had already floated the sloop and was sailing for port
with the boom off before a fair wind. The adventure cost the _Spray_
no small amount of pounding on the hard sand; she lost her shoe and
part of her false keel, and received other damage, which, however, was
readily mended afterward in dock.

On the following day I anchored at Maldonado. The British consul, his
daughter, and another young lady came on board, bringing with them a
basket of fresh eggs, strawberries, bottles of milk, and a great loaf
of sweet bread. This was a good landfall, and better cheer than I had
found at Maldonado once upon a time when I entered the port with a
stricken crew in my bark, the _Aquidneck_.

In the waters of Maldonado Bay a variety of fishes abound, and
fur-seals in their season haul out on the island abreast the bay to
breed. Currents on this coast are greatly affected by the prevailing
winds, and a tidal wave higher than that ordinarily produced by the
moon is sent up the whole shore of Uruguay before a southwest gale, or
lowered by a northeaster, as may happen. One of these waves having
just receded before the northeast wind which brought the _Spray_ in
left the tide now at low ebb, with oyster-rocks laid bare for some
distance along the shore. Other shellfish of good flavor were also
plentiful, though small in size. I gathered a mess of oysters and
mussels here, while a native with hook and line, and with mussels for
bait, fished from a point of detached rocks for bream, landing several
good-sized ones.

The fisherman's nephew, a lad about seven years old, deserves mention
as the tallest blasphemer, for a short boy, that I met on the voyage.
He called his old uncle all the vile names under the sun for not
helping him across the gully. While he swore roundly in all the moods
and tenses of the Spanish language, his unc