ils, that were loose to dry, were
old, and patched, and evidently displayed to cloak the character of the
vessel by an ostentatious show of their unserviceable condition; but her
rigging was beautifully fitted, every rope lying in the chafe of another
being carefully served with hide. There were several large
bushy-whiskered fellows lounging about the deck, with their hair
gathered into dirty net-bags, like the fishermen of Barcelona; many had
red silk sashes round their waists, through which were stuck their long
knives, in shark-skin sheaths. Their numbers were not so great as to
excite suspicion: but a certain daring, reckless manner, would at once
have distinguished them, independently of anything else, from the quiet,
hard-worked, red-shirted, merchant seaman.

"That chap is not much to be trusted," said the lieutenant; "his bunting
would make a few jackets for Joseph, I take it." But we had little time
to be critical, before our friend Peter came paddling back with another
blackamoor in the stern, of as ungainly an exterior as could well be
imagined. He was a very large man, whose weight every now and then, as
they breasted the short sea, cocked up the snout of the canoe with Peter
Mangrove in it, as if he had been a cork, leaving him to flourish his
paddle in the air, like the weather-wheel of a steam-boat in a sea-way.
The new-comer was strong and broad-shouldered, with long muscular arms,
and a chest like Hercules; but his legs and thighs were, for his bulk,
remarkably puny and misshapen. A thick fell of black wool, in close
tufts, as if his face had been stuck full of cloves, covered his chin
and upper-lip; and his hair, if hair it could be called, was twisted
into a hundred short plaits, that bristled out, and gave his head, when
he took his hat off, the appearance of a porcupine. There was a large
saber-cut across his nose and down his cheek, and he wore two immense
gold earrings. His dress consisted of short cotton drawers, that did
not reach within two inches of his knee, leaving his thin cucumber
shanks (on which the small bullet-like calf appeared to have been stuck
before, through mistake, in place of abaft) naked to the shoe; a check
shirt, and an enormously large Panama hat, made of a sort of cane, split
small, and worn shovel-fashion. Notwithstanding, he made his bow by no
means ungracefully, and offered his services in choice Spanish, but
spoke English as soon as he heard who we were.

"Pray, sir,