spreading courses,
topsails, and--what was then quite an innovation--topgallant sails,
while the mizen spread a lateen-shaped sail stretched along a sloping
yard suspended just beneath the top, in the position occupied in these
days by the cross-jack. She was armed with twenty-two cannon of various
sizes and descriptions, and she mustered a crew of fifty-six men and
boys, all told. Her hull was painted a rich orange-brown colour down to
a little above the water-line, beneath which ran a narrow black stripe
right round her hull, dividing the brown colour of her topsides from her
white-painted bottom which, by the way, was now almost hidden by a rank
growth of green weed. She carried one large poop lantern, and displayed
from her flagstaff the red cross of Saint George, while from her fore
and main topgallant-mastheads, from the peak of her mizen, and from the
head of her sprit-topmast lazily waved other flags and pennons. As she
swung into view round Devil's Point the blare of trumpets and the roll
of drums reached the ears of the crowd which awaited her arrival; but
these sounds presently ceased as her crew proceeded to brail up and furl
sail after sail; and some ten minutes later, scarcely stemming the
outgoing tide, she drifted slowly in toward her berth alongside the
wharf. Ropes were thrown, great hawsers were hauled ashore and made
fast to sturdy bollards, fenders were dropped overside, and the
_Bonaventure_ was very smartly secured abreast the warehouse which was
destined to receive her cargo.

Then, when the ship had been securely moored, fore and aft, her gangway
was thrown open, a gang-plank was run out from the deck to the wharf,
and Mr Richard Marshall, her owner, stepped on board and advanced with
outstretched hand toward a short, stout, grey-haired man who had
hitherto occupied a conspicuous position on the poop, but who now
descended the poop ladder with some difficulty and hobbled towards the
gangway.

The contrast between the two men was great in every way, except perhaps
in the matter of age, for both were on the shady side of fifty; but
while one of them, Mr Richard Marshall, merchant and shipowner, to wit,
was still hale and hearty, carrying himself as straight and upright as
though he were still in the prime of early manhood, the other, who was
none other than John Burroughs, the captain of the _Bonaventure_, moved
stiffly and limped painfully as a result of many wounds received during
his fo