rity of the
Viceroy to take me there as 'Professor' of seamanship and gunnery; in
addition I might be required to teach navigation or nautical astronomy,
or drill the cadets in infantry, artillery, and fencing. For this I was
to receive what would be in our money $1,800 per annum, as near as we
can compare it, paid in gold each month. Besides, I will have a house
furnished for my use, and it is their intention, as soon as I _show_
that I _know_ something, to considerably increase my pay. They asked
the Viceroy to give me 130 T per month (about $186) and house, but the
Viceroy said I was _but a boy_; that I had seen no years and had only
come here a week ago with no one to vouch for me, and that I might turn
out an impostor. But he would risk 100 T on me anyhow, and as soon as
I was reported favorably on by the college I would be raised--the
agreement is to be for three years. For a few months I am to command
a training ship--an ironclad that is in dry dock at present, until a
captain in the English Navy comes out, who has been sent for to command
her.

"_So Here I am_--twenty-four years old and captain of a man-of-war--a
better one than any in our own navy--only for a short time, of course,
but I would be a pretty long time before I would command one at home.
Well--I accepted and will enter on my duties in a week, as soon as my
house is put in order. I saw it--it has a long veranda, very broad; with
flower garden, apricot trees, etc., just covered with blossoms; a wide
hall on the front, a room about 18x15, with a 13-foot ceiling; then back
another rather larger, with a cupola skylight in the centre, where I
am going to put a shelf with flowers. The Government is to furnish the
house with bed, tables, chairs, sideboards, lounges, stove for kitchen.
I have grates (American) in the room, but I don't need them. We have
snow, and a good deal of ice in winter, but the thermometer never gets
below zero. I have to supply my own crockery. I will have two servants
and cook; I will only get one and the cook first--they only cost $4
to $5.50 per month, and their board amounts to very little. I can get
along, don't you think so? Now I want you to get Jim to pack up all
my professional works on gunnery, surveying, seamanship, mathematics,
astronomy, algebra, geometry, trigonometry, conic sections, calculus,
mechanics, and _every_ book of that description I own, including those
paperbound 'Naval Institute' papers, and put them in a b