of our
shipmate's last words.

"Begorrah, Tom," cried he, wiping his eye with the sleeve of his jumper,
"Oi wudn't 'a belaved it, sure, if ye hadn't towld me, mabouchal, wid
yer own potato trap! Faith, the poor chap samed quoite a t'other sort.
Sure, Tom, me darlint, as he's bin an' gone an' saved the noomber ov yer
mess, be the powers, Oi'll spake to Father O'Flannagan whin I git back
to Porchmouth an' ax him fur to say a mass, sure, fur the poor beggar,
so that his sowl may rest in paice. May the saints protict him!"

Three days afterwards, without any further adventure, we anchored in
Funchal Roads.

Here the squadron remained a week, the other ships having joined us when
within a day's sail of Madeira; and, as we were going to make such a
comparatively long stay, the men were granted leave to go ashore, watch
and watch in turn.

Just before we left, the commodore gave a grand picnic to all the
officers at the Grande Curral, when I had the luck of accompanying the
party that went from our ship, a piece of good fortune shared by Mick,
my chum.

This Curral, a name which means, I'm told, in the Spanish language a
`sheepfold,' is an immense valley, completely surrounded by hills, that
lies a few miles to the north-west of Funchal, the capital of the
island.

The hills encircling the natural plateau of the Curral are literally
perpendicular, being in no part less than a thousand feet high; while
round a part of the cliffs there is a narrow road leading to the `garden
houses' of the rich folk having business premises in the town, and a
number of plantations, which is cut out of the solid rock and is about
ten or twelve feet high.

As the picnic party went along over this road, the view presented to our
eyes on looking down below was that of an unfathomable abyss, filled up
by a mass of clouds and vapours, all rolling about in constant motion,
and tumbling the one on top of another.

Mick and I were each aboard a mule and enjoyed ourselves to rights,
racing against one another all the way; though we took precious good
care to keep in the rear of our officers, amongst whom was Lieutenant
Robinson, whose liver must have been particularly out of sorts that
morning, for he was in a grumpier and more fault-finding mood than
usual.

He did catch sight of us once as we were turning a sharp point in the
road round a projection of a cliff; but, through the fortunate
circumstance of the mule which the lieutenant was