ry like mermaids they behaved too.

We were still some distance from the beach, and under slow headway, when
we sailed right into the midst of these swimming nymphs, and they boarded
us at every quarter; many seizing hold of the chainplates and springing
into the chains; others, at the peril of being run over by the vessel in
her course, catching at the bob-stays, and wreathing their slender forms
about the ropes, hung suspended in the air. All of them at length
succeeded in getting up the ship's side, where they clung dripping with
the brine and glowing from the bath, their jet-black tresses streaming
over their shoulders, and half enveloping their otherwise naked forms.
There they hung, sparkling with savage vivacity, laughing gaily at one
another, and chattering away with infinite glee. Nor were they idle the
while, for each one performed the simple offices of the toilet for the
other. Their luxuriant locks, wound up and twisted into the smallest
possible compass, were freed from the briny element; the whole person
carefully dried, and from a little round shell that passed from hand to
hand, anointed with a fragrant oil: their adornments were completed by
passing a few loose folds of white tappa, in a modest cincture, around the
waist. Thus arrayed they no longer hesitated, but flung themselves lightly
over the bulwarks, and were quickly frolicking about the decks. Many of
them went forward, perching upon the head-rails or running out upon the
bow-sprit, while others seated themselves upon the taffrail, or reclined
at full length upon the boats.

Their appearance perfectly amazed me; their extreme youth, the light clear
brown of their complexions, their delicate features, and inexpressibly
graceful figures, their softly moulded limbs, and free unstudied action,
seemed as strange as beautiful.

The _Dolly_ was fairly captured; and never I will say was vessel carried
before by such a dashing and irresistible party of boarders. The ship
taken, we could not do otherwise than yield ourselves prisoners, and for
the whole period that she remained in the bay, the _Dolly_, as well as her
crew, were completely in the hands of the mermaids.

In the evening after we had come to an anchor, the deck was illuminated
with lanterns, and this picturesque band of sylphs, tricked out with
flowers, and dressed in robes of variegated tappa, got up a ball in great
style. These females are passionately fond of dancing, and in the wild
gr