II.] SIR PATRICK. 3 



four-and-twenty hours, as I have sat in the Tontine Tower, 

 drinking the bad port wine ; for, after spending a fortune in 

 telegraphic messages to Holyhead, it has been decided that 



B cannot come on, and I have been forced to rig up a 



Glasgow merchant skipper into a jury sailing-master. 



Any such arrangement is, at the best, unsatisfactory; but 

 to abandon the cruise is the only alternative. However, con- 

 sidering I had but a few hours to look about me, I have been 

 more fortunate than might have been expected. I have had 

 the luck to stumble on a young fellow, very highly recom- 

 mended by the Captain of the Port. He returned just a 

 fortnight ago from a trip to Australia, and having since 

 married a wife, is naturally anxious not to lose this oppor- 

 tunity of going to sea again for a few months. 



I start to-morrow for Oban, via Inverary, which I wish to 

 show to my Icelander. At Oban I join the schooner, and 

 proceed to Stornaway, in the Hebrides ; whither the un- 

 ci omestic Mr. Ebenezer Wyse (a descendant, probably, of 

 some Westland Covenanter) is to follow me by the steamer. 



