ng up
and talking now. It wouldn't have been pleasant for your friends to
have seen a paragraph in the papers, `John Higson, mate of HMS
_Plantagenet_, was hung on the --'"

"Avast there," cried Higson, "or I'll break your head, you--"

"He really was the means of saving your life," said McTavish.

"Then I'm obliged to you, Rogers, and you may call me old Higson as
often as you like, provided you do me an equal service every time."

The next morning the frigate stood out of the Bay of Funchal on her way
to the West Indies.

CHAPTER FOUR.

THE FRIGATE AT TRINIDAD--MAGNIFICENT SCENERY--MIDSHIPMEN ON SHORE--
PURCHASE A SPIDER-MONKEY, AND TAKE A RIDE WITH HIM INTO THE COUNTRY--
ADAIR MEETS SOME RELATIVES--HE AND JACK NEARLY LOSE THEIR HEARTS, BUT
DON'T--COLONEL O'REGAN AND HIS DAUGHTER STELLA--A COUNTRY-HOUSE--VISIT
TO A COFFEE PLANTATION--THE COLONEL'S SCHEMES--THE COLONEL AND HIS
DAUGHTER EMBARK ON BOARD THE PLANTAGENET--THE DRAGON'S MOUTH--THE
FRIGATE IN DANGER.

The mists of the early morning hung over the ocean, but not with
sufficient density to obscure altogether the outline of the land, as her
Majesty's frigate _Plantagenet_ was entering the Boca Navios, or ship
channel, one of the Dragon's Mouths which lead from the north into the
Gulf of Paria, between the island of Trinidad and the mainland of South
America. Captain Hemming stood, speaking-trumpet in hand, conning the
ship; the crew were at their stations; hands in the chains, ever and
anon, as they hove the lead, in deep, sonorous voices shouting out the
depth of water; every one was on the alert, for the currents were
uncertain and the wind baffling. As the sun rose the silvery mist
seemed to be drawn up like a curtain, exposing a magnificent spectacle;
islands of fantastic shapes rising from the calm, blue water, clothed to
their summits with mighty trees, of varied hues, growing out of the
crevices of the rocks. Here, lofty cliffs; there, some deep bay, with
plantations and cottages beyond; or a shady valley, the fit abode of
peace and contentment, as Adair, who was just then in a sentimental
mood, observed; now in a wilder, more open spot were seen the huts of a
whaling establishment; and then, further on, open glades and grassy
enclosures; while on the port side towered up to the clear, bright sky
the lofty ridge-like mountains of Trinidad itself. The breeze
freshening, at length the handsome capital of the island, Port of Spain,
on the sh