rom the Brazils, we sighted a
Spanish man-of-war corvette. When we got up to her we hove to, and an
officer came on board who could speak a little English; and you would
scarcely believe it, but the first thing he did was to ask us for the
latitude and longitude; and he confessed that the only instruments they
had on board were out of repair, and, for what I know, the only man who
knew how to use them was ill. Our captain then sent an officer on board
the corvette, and a pretty condition she was in for a man-of-war. They
had a governor of some place as a passenger, and his wife and family,
and two or three other ladies and their families; and there they were
all lying about the decks in a state of despair, thinking they were
never to see land again. They had been a whole month tossing about in
every direction, and not knowing how to find the way home. The decks
were as dirty as if they had not been holystoned or swept all that time;
not a sail was properly set, not a rope flemished down. If I hadn't
seen it with my own eyes, I could not have believed such a thing
possible. Our appearance raised their spirits a little, and they began
putting themselves to rights as soon as they had made sail on their
course. They kept company with us till we got into the latitude of
Cadiz, for their craft sailed very well, for all that they did not know
how to handle her, and I believe that they managed to get into port in
safety at last."

"I am surprised at what you tell me," observed Miss Garden, "I should
have thought the Spaniards could not have so totally forgotten their
ancient naval renown as to allow such dreadful ignorance to exist."

"The men are active, intelligent fellows enough, and the officers in the
merchant service are, from what I have seen, very good seamen; but since
the war, their navy has been much neglected, and men were made officers
who did not know the stem from the stern of the ship, just because they
happened to be some poor dependent of one of their nobles, or the son of
a valet out of place. Things are mending a little now with them, I
hear."

"I wonder any but such beggarly fellows as you speak of can be induced
to go into the navy at all," said the colonel, who had been listening to
the master's story, and was far from pleased at the interest Ada took in
what he said. "For my part, I would as soon be a shoe-black; but you
seem determined to give my niece a dose of the sea."

"Oh, yes, sir!"