the
first lieutenant, and orders were at once issued to get up the anchors and
set sail. Her head was pointed west as she left the harbour, and the
general opinion was that she was bound for Gibraltar. It leaked out,
however, in the afternoon that she was sailing under sealed orders, and as
that would hardly be the case if she were bound for Gibraltar, there were
innumerable discussions among the sailors as to her destination. Could she
be meant to cruise along the west coast of France, or to return to England
and join a fleet being got ready there for some important operation?

"What do you say, Bill?" one of the men asked an old sailor, who had sat
quietly, taking no part in the discussion.

"Well, if you asks me," he said, "I should say we are bound for the West
Indies."

"The West Indies, Bill! What makes you think that?"

"Well, I thinks that, because it seems to me as that is where we are most
wanted. The French have got a stronger fleet than we have out there."

"Well, they have got as strong a fleet at Toulon, and quite as strong a
one at Brest."

"Yes, that may be so, but I think we are pretty safe to lick them at
either of these places if they will come out and fight us fair, whereas in
the West Indies they are a good bit stronger. There are so many ports and
islands that, as we are, so to speak, a good deal scattered, they might at
any moment come upon us in double our strength."

"Have you ever been there before, Bill?"

"Ay, two or three times. In some respects it could not be better; you can
buy fruit, and 'bacca and rum for next to nothing, when your officers give
you a chance. Lor', the games them niggers are up to to circumvent them
would make you laugh! When you land, an old black woman will come up with
a basket full of cocoa-nuts. Your officer steps up to her and examines
them, and they look as right as can be. Perhaps he breaks one and it is
full of milk; very good. So you go up to buy, and the officer looks on.
The woman hands you two or three, and when she gives you the last one she
winks her eye. She don't say anything, but you drop a sixpence into her
hand among the coppers you have to pay for the others, and when she has
quite sold out the officer orders you into the boat to lie off till he
comes back. And when he returns he is quite astonished to find that most
of the crew are three sheets in the wind.

"Then they will bring you sugar-canes half as thick as your wrist, looking
as in