easy
of access from the water; whilst the remaining three, consisting of a
dwelling for Giuseppe and his principal officers, a long, rambling
barrack-like structure for the men who might happen to be left on shore,
and a cook-house, were all erected on the top of the hill. The schooner
naturally attracted a great deal of attention. She was dismantled, all
to her lower masts, and was hove right down on her beam-ends, so as to
bring her keel out of the water, so that we could not see as much of her
as we should have liked; but, judging of her size from the boats
alongside, and the men working about her, we estimated her to measure
about one hundred and fifty tons. Her bottom was turned in our
direction, and the men were busily engaged in stripping off a quantity
of her sheathing and removing several of her planks below the water-
line, which, in conjunction with the fact that we detected what looked
uncommonly like a couple of shot-holes through her bottom, led us to
believe that she, like ourselves, had recently had a very narrow escape
of being sunk. The position she was in afforded us an excellent
opportunity of inspecting her lines, and I must say I never before saw
any nearly so perfect. Looking at them from where we were, they seemed
to be absolutely faultless; and as we critically examined them the
conviction forced itself upon us that, in moderate weather and with not
too much sea on, there was nothing flying British bunting in West Indian
waters--or elsewhere, for that matter--which would stand the slightest
chance of catching her.

After an absence of about an hour the felucca's boat came off again,
without Carera, but loaded down to the gunwale with the most
heterogeneous assortment of goods it is possible to imagine, including
bales of silk and other valuable stuffs, casks of wine and spirits, and
a considerable quantity of handsome silver plate; the latter alone being
worth, according to my estimation, considerably more than Carera's bag
of doubloons and the rest of his cargo to boot. These goods were passed
on deck and from thence down into the hold; the remainder of our own
small cargo was loaded into the boat, and away she went on shore again.
When she came off the second time it was nearly sunset; Carera came with
her, bringing off the remaining price of his barter, consisting of half
a dozen bales of tobacco and fifty boxes of prime cigars. The rascal
seemed thoroughly well pleased with the resul