tinople, or whom I have
conveyed?"

The interpreter, with an air of injured pride, drew himself up to his
full height, and said--

"Captain, I have told you not to ask such things. Good-day."

But that was how one of the heroes of Plevna made his first English
ally by sea.

A Russian Port in the 'Sixties

My first visit to Russia was at the age of thirteen. I was serving
aboard a smart brig that had just come from the Guano Islands in the
Indian Ocean. The captain and officers belonged to the "swell" type of
seaman of that period. The former has just passed away at the age of
eighty-four. He was in his younger days a terror to those who served
under him, and a despot who knew no pity. In an ordinary way he was
most careful not to lower the dignity of his chief officer in the eyes
of the crew, but wherever his self-interest was concerned he did not
stick at trivialities. I have a vivid recollection of a very
picturesque passage of words being exchanged between him and his
first mate. The officer had been commanded to go ashore in the
longboat at 5 a.m. on the morning after arrival for the labourers who
were required to assist the sailors to discharge the cargo. The
infuriated mate asked his commander if he took him for a "procurator"
of Russian serfs, and reminded him that his certificate of competency
was a qualification for certain duties which he was willing to
perform; but as this did not come within the scope of them, he would
see him to blazes before he would stoop to the level of becoming the
engager of a drove of Russian convicts.

"What is it coming to," said he, "that a chief mate should be
requested to take charge of a boat-load of fellows who wouldn't be fit
to live in our country? The boatswain is the proper man to do this
kind of work, and if you cannot trust him to select the lousie
rascals, then go yourself!"

These harsh words affected the captain so much that he became
inarticulate with passion; but when he had somewhat recovered, the
splendour of his jerky vocabulary could be heard far beyond the
precincts of the cabin. He declared that his authority had never been
outraged in such a fashion before, and with the air of an autocrat
ordered the mate to his berth until the morrow, when he would have to
appear before the British Consul.

The officer's pride was injured, his temper was up, and he began to
suitably libel everybody. Her Majesty's representative was the object
of much vitup