y 13. 1824.

"Dear Sir,

"Many thanks for yours of the fifth; ditto to Muir for his. You will
have heard that Gamba and my vessel got out of the hands of the Turks
safe and intact; nobody knows well how or why, for there's a mystery
in the story somewhat melodramatic. Captain Valsamachi has, I take
it, spun a long yarn by this time in Argostoli. I attribute their
release entirely to Saint Dionisio, of Zante, and the Madonna of the
Rock, near Cephalonia.

"The adventures of my separate luck were also not finished at
Dragomestri; we were conveyed out by some Greek gun-boats, and found
the Leonidas brig-of-war at sea to look after us. But blowing weather
coming on, we were driven on the rocks _twice_ in the passage of the
Scrofes, and the dollars had another narrow escape. Two thirds of the
crew got ashore over the bowsprit: the rocks were rugged enough, but
water very deep close in shore, so that she was, after much swearing
and some exertion, got off again, and away we went with a third of
our crew, leaving the rest on a desolate island, where they might
have been now, had not one of the gun-boats taken them off, for we
were in no condition to take them off again.

"Tell Muir that Dr. Bruno did not show much fight on the occasion;
for besides stripping to his flannel waistcoat, and running about
like a rat in an emergency, when I was talking to a Greek boy (the
brother of the Greek girls in Argostoli), and telling him of the fact
that there was no danger for the passengers, whatever there might be
for the vessel, and assuring him that I could save both him and
myself without difficulty[1] (though he can't swim), as the water,
though deep, was not very rough,--the wind _not_ blowing _right_ on
shore (it was a blunder of the Greeks who missed stays),--the Doctor
exclaimed, 'Save _him_, indeed! by G--d! save _me_ rather--I'll be
first if I can'--a piece of egotism which he pronounced with such
emphatic simplicity as to set all who had leisure to hear him
laughing[2], and in a minute after the vessel drove off again after
striking twice. She sprung a small leak, but nothing further
happened, except that the captain was very nervous afterwards.

[Footnote 1: He meant to have taken the boy on his shoulders and swum
with him to shore. This feat would have been but a repetition of one
of his early sports at Harrow; where it was a frequent practice of
his thus to mount one of the smaller boys on his shoulders, and, much
to