to save our lives and cargo from destruction. Fortunately, we
effected our landing with complete success, and at dawn I found my
gallant little craft a total wreck on an uninhabited key. A large tent
or pavilion was quickly built from our sails, sweeps, and remaining
spars, beneath which every thing valuable and undamaged was stored
before nightfall. Parties were sent forth to reconnoitre, while our
remaining foremast was unshipped, and planted on the highest part of
the sandbank with a signal of distress. The scouts returned without
consolation. Nothing had been seen except a large dog, whose neck was
encircled with a collar; but as he could not be made to approach by
kindness, I forbade his execution. Neither smoke nor tobacco freed us
of the cloudy swarms of mosquitoes that filled the air after sunset,
and so violent was the irritation of their innumerable stings, that a
delicate boy among the crew became utterly insane, and was not
restored till long after his return to Cuba.

Several sad and weary days passed over us on this desolate key, where
our mode of life brought to my recollection many a similar hour spent
by me in company with Don Rafael and his companions. Vessel after
vessel passed the reef, but none took notice of our signal. At last,
on the tenth day of our imprisonment, a couple of small schooners
fanned their way in a nonchalant manner towards our island, and
knowing that we were quite at their mercy, refused our rescue unless
we assented to the most extravagant terms of compensation. After a
good deal of chaffering, it was agreed that the salvors should land us
and our effects at Nassau, New Providence, where the average should be
determined by the lawful tribunal. The voyage was soon accomplished,
and our amiable liberators from the mosquitoes of our island prison
obtained a judicial award of seventy per cent. for their extraordinary
trouble!

The wreck and the wreckers made so formidable an inroad upon my
finances, that I was very happy when I reached Cuba once more, to
accept the berth of sailing-master in a slave brig which was fitting
out at St. Thomas's, under an experienced Frenchman.

My new craft, the SAN PABLO, was a trim Brazil-built brig, of rather
more than 300 tons. Her hold contained sixteen twenty-four carronades,
while her magazine was stocked with abundance of ammunition, and her
kelson lined, fore and aft, with round shot and grape. Captain * * *,
who had been described as a Tar