h; but
the devil a cable was there bent to and my men being all stupidly drunk,
I let my vessel drift athwart-hawse of a frigate; the commanding officer
of which, seeing I had no other cable bent, very kindly sent a few hands
on board to assist me; and by five o'clock I was safely moored in the
Bay of Gibraltar, and walked my quarter-deck as high in my own
estimation as Columbus, when he made the American islands.

But short, short was my power! My frigate arrived the next morning.
The captain sent for me, and I gave him an account of my voyage and my
disasters; he very kindly consoled me for my misfortune; and so far from
being angry with me for losing my masts, said it was wonderful, under
all circumstances, how I had succeeded in saving the vessel. We lay
only a fortnight at Gibraltar, when news arrived that the French had
entered Spain, and very shortly after orders came from England to
suspend all hostilities against the Spaniards. This we thought a bore,
as it almost annihilated any chance of prize-money; at the same time
that it increased our labours and stimulated our activity in a most
surprising manner, and opened scenes to us far more interesting than if
the war with Spain had continued.

We were ordered up to join the admiral off Toulon, but desired to look
into the Spanish port of Carthagena on our way, and to report the state
of the Spanish squadron in that arsenal. We were received with great
politeness by the governor and the officers of the Spanish fleet lying
there. These people we found were men of talent and education; their
ships were mostly dismantled, and they had not the means of equipping
them.

CHAPTER SIX.

_Par_. You give me most egregious indignity.

_Laf_. Ay, with all my heart; and thou art worthy of it.

"ALL'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL."

Naturally anxious to behold a country from which we had hitherto been
excluded for so many years, we all applied for leave to go on shore, and
obtained it. Even the seamen were allowed the same indulgence, and went
in parties of twenty and thirty at a time. We were followed and gaped
at by the people; but shunned at the same time as "hereticos." The inns
of the town, like all the rest of them in Spain, have not improved since
the days of the immortal Santillana--they were all more or less filled
with the lowest of the rabble and a set of bravos whose calling was
robbery, and who cared little if murder were its accompaniment. The