is, we suppose, the modern equivalent
for his nautical simile, and very prosaic and commonplace it sounds; but
we shall find that the romance of the Navy did not go out with the last
of the sailing frigates, and that the age of steam and electricity, of
enormous ironclads and rapid cruisers, affords as great a scope for
individual daring, resource, and heroism as the days of sailing frigates
and boarding parties; and that though in recent years our sailors have
not had many chances of using their weapons on the sea, the Naval
Brigade has taken its part in many an expedition, on land, and on all
occasions the British tar has proved himself a worthy successor to the
heroes of Trafalgar and the Nile.

During the earlier years of the Great Queen's reign her sailors had
little to do in the fighting line, though on the West Coast of Africa
the slave traffic gave occasion to many a lively skirmish, and on other
seas various events from time to time afforded an opportunity for
showing that their weapons were as effective as of old.

THE CAPTURE OF ADEN.

Somewhat of that character was the capture of Aden, an Arab town on the
entrance of the Red Sea. A former sultan or chief of Aden had by treaty
given up the place to the British; but his successor, not approving of
the bargain, refused to submit to it. As it was important for the
English to hold the place, to facilitate the navigation of the Red Sea,
an expedition, under Captain Smith of the _Volage_, was sent by Sir
Frederick Maitland, then Commander-in-Chief on the East India Station,
to bring the Sultan to reason.

It was not a big affair, though unhappily it cost several lives, but its
result was important and lasting. Captain Smith's expedition comprised,
besides HMS _Volage_, three smaller vessels and some transports. On the
19th of January 1839 he bombarded the town and landed his troops, who
after a short resistance overcame the Sultan's army, and hoisted the
flag on its walls, and Aden became a port of the British Empire, as it
has remained ever since.

From early times it had been a very important centre for the trade
between Europe and the East, but when the Portuguese opened up the route
to India by the Cape it lost its advantage. In the hands of the British
its prosperity has returned, and the return of the Eastern trade by
means of the Suez Canal to the Red Sea has raised it to a far higher
position than ever it possessed in ancient days; it is now the g