en the sargant o' marines comes
up, and loads the muskets with ball cartridges, then the men begins to
grumble; howsomever, the master throws the cat overboard off the
lee-quarter, and the waterman, as soon as he sees her splash in the
water, backs astarn to take her into the boat, but the first-lieutenant
tells him to get out of the way, if he doesn't want a bullet through his
boat--so he pulls ahead again. The master fires first, and hits the cat
a clip on the neck, which turns her half over, and the first-lieutenant
fires his musket, and cuts the poor hanimal right in half by the
backbone, and she sprawls a bit, and then goes down to the bottom.
`Capital shots both,' says the first-lieutenant; `he'll never take an
observation of your sextant again, master;' and they both laughs
heartily, and goes down the ladder to get their dinner.

"Well, sir, I never seed a ship's company in such a farmant, or such a
nitty kicked up 'tween decks, in my life: it was almost as bad as a
mutiny; but they piped to grog soon a'ter, and the men goes to their
berths and talks the matter over more coolly, and they all agrees that
no good would come to the ship a'ter that, and very melancholy they
were, and couldn't forget it.

"Well, sir; our sailing orders comes down the next day, and the first
cutter is sent on shore for the captain, and six men out of ten leaves
the boat, and I'm sure that it warn't for desartion, but all along of
that cat being hove overboard and butchered in that way--for three on
'em were messmates of mine--for you know, sir, we talks them matters
over, and if they had had a mind to quit the sarvice, I should have
know'd it. The captain was as savage as a bear with a sore head, and
did nothing but growl for three days afterwards, and it was well to keep
clear on him, for he snapped right and left, like a mad dog. I never
seed him in such a humour afore, except once when he had a fortnight's
foul wind.

"Well, sir, we had been out a week, when we falls in with a large
frigate, and beats to quarters. We expected her to be a Frenchman; but
as soon as she comes within gunshot, she hoists the private signal, and
proves to be the _Semiramus_, and our senior officer. The next morning,
cruising together, we sees a vessel in-shore, and the _Semiramus_ stands
in on the larboard tack, and orders us by signal to keep away, and
prevent his running along the coast. The vessel, finding that she
couldn't go no way, comes to