are you the master of that vessel?" said the lieutenant.

"No, sir, I am the mate, and I learn you are desirous of a passage to
Jamaica." This was spoken with a broad Scotch accent.

"Yes, we are," said I, in very great astonishment, "but we will not sail
with the devil; and who ever saw a negro Scotchman before, the spirit of
Nicol Jarvie conjured into a blackamoor's skin!"

The fellow laughed. "I am black, as you see; so were my father and
mother before me." And he looked at me, as much as to say, I have read
the book you quote from. "But I was born in the good town of
Port-Glasgow notwithstanding, and many a voyage I have made as cabin-boy
and cook in the good ship the Peggy Bogle, with worthy old Jock Hunter;
but that matters not. I was told you wanted to go to Jamaica; I dare-say
our captain will take you for a moderate passage-money. But here he
comes to speak for himself.--Captain Vanderbosh, here are two
shipwrecked British officers, who wish to be put on shore on the east
end of Jamaica; will you take them, and what will you charge for their
passage?"

The man he spoke to was nearly as tall as himself; he was a sunburnt,
angular, raw-boned, iron-visaged veteran, with a nose in shape and color
like the bowl of his own pipe, but not at all, according to the received
idea, like a Dutchman. His dress was quizzical enough--white-trousers, a
long-flapped embroidered waistcoat that might have belonged to a Spanish
grandee, with an old-fashioned French-cut coat, showing the frayed marks
where the lace had been stripped off, voluminous in the skirts, but very
tight in the sleeves, which were so short as to leave his large bony
paws, and six inches of his arm above the wrist, exposed; altogether, it
fitted him like a purser's shirt on a hand-spike.

"Vy, for von hondred thaler I will land dem safe in Mancheoneal Bay; but
how shall ve manage, Villiamson? De cabin vas point yesterday."

The Scotch negro nodded. "Never mind; I dare-say the smell of the paint
won't signify to the gentlemen."

The bargain was ratified; we agreed to pay the stipulated sum, and that
same evening, having dropped down with the last of the sea-breeze, we
set sail from Bocca Chica, and began working up under the lee of the
headland of Punto Canoa. When off the San Domingo Gate, we burned a
blue-light, which was immediately answered by another in-shore of us. In
the glare we could perceive two boats, full of men. Any one who has ever
played a