Lying upon my back in the bottom of the canoe, with my face turned
upward to the stars, I was able to see that we were heading eastward
toward Kingston harbour; and about half an hour later the canoe glided
up alongside a small felucca, of some thirty tons burden and was made
fast by her painter. The canoe secured to his satisfaction, the negro
Caesar climbed over the felucca's low bulwarks, and I heard his bare
feet pattering along the deck until, as I supposed, he reached the
companion, when the sounds became muffled, and were presently lost.

Then I caught the sound of voices,--Caesar's and others'--but so
indistinctly that I was unable to distinguish what was being said. The
conversation, however, was brief, for in three or four minutes the tread
of Caesar's bare feet again became audible, accompanied by that of
others; and I then discovered that a conversation, of which I was the
subject, was being conducted in Spanish! This seemed to suggest that I
had fallen into the hands of the enemy, though why the Spaniards should
wish to kidnap so very unimportant a personage as myself I could not for
the life of me imagine, unless they had adopted some new system of
warfare, one element of which consisted in kidnapping as many of the
enemy's officers as possible, without much reference to their importance
or otherwise!

But of course I should soon see; for as I lay there in the bottom of the
canoe, cogitating to this effect, I became aware, from the remarks
interchanged by those on deck, that I was about to be transferred to the
felucca; and if the Spaniards had adopted the novel system of kidnapping
British officers, I should doubtless find some of my fellow-officers on
board in the same plight as myself.

Presently Caesar swung himself over the felucca's bulwarks and down into
the canoe, when he at once seized me by the shoulders, and, calling upon
his friend Peter to lend him a hand, proceeded to pass me up over the
felucca's rail to the three Spanish-speaking individuals who stood on
deck stretching out their arms to receive me. They were very careful
not to hurt me unnecessarily during the process of transfer, from which
circumstance I derived a certain amount of comfort; the inference being
that, whatever might be their motive in thus seizing me, no bodily harm
to me was intended. Having safely transferred me from the canoe to the
deck of the felucca, my abductors next conveyed me below to the hot,
stuffy li