gh above the water, and masts uplifting heavy spars far into
the blue sky, rendered especially formidable by gaping muzzles of
numerous black cannon visible through her open ports, floated just
beyond the landing. I measured carefully the apparent distance between
the flat roof of the sugar warehouse, against the corner of which I
leaned in seeming listlessness, and the lower yards of her forward
mast--it was no farther than I had often cast a riata, yet it would be
a skilful toss on a black night.

However, I received small comfort from the thought, for there was that
about this great gloomy war-ship--frigate those about me called
her--which awed and depressed my spirits; all appeared so ponderously
sullen, so massive with concealed power, so mysteriously silent. My
eyes, searching for each visible object, detected scarcely a stir of
life aboard, except as some head would arise for an instant above the
rail, or my glance fell upon the motionless figure of a sentry,
standing at the top of the narrow steps leading downward to the water,
a huge burly fellow, whose side-arms glistened ominously in the sun.
These were the sole signs of human presence; yet, from snatches of
conversation, I learned that hidden away in the heart of that black
floating monster of wood and iron, were nearly four hundred men, and
the mere knowledge made the sombre silence more impressive than ever.

Except for gossiping spectators lining the shore, nothing living
appeared about the entire scene, if I except a dozen or more small
boats, propelled by lusty black oarsmen, deeply laden with produce,
busily plying back and forth between various vessels, seeking market
for their wares. Even these, as the priest told me, had apparently
been warned away from the flag-ship, as I observed how carefully they
avoided any approach to her boarding-ladder. The longer I remained,
the more thoroughly hopeless appeared any prospect of success. Nor
could I conjure up a practical--nay! even possible--method of placing
so much as a foot on board the "Santa Maria." Surely never was
prison-ship guarded with more jealous care, and never did man face more
hopeless quest than this confronting me. The longer I gazed upon that
grim, black, sullen mass of wood and iron--that floating fortress of
despotic Spanish power--the more desperate appeared my mission; the
darker grew every possibility of plucking a victim from out that
monster's tightly closed jaws. Yet I was