166 BURIED ALIVE. 



or blunderbuss, across his body; and one hand, as he walked 

 backwards and forwards on the small confined deck of the felucca, 

 held a large green silk umbrella over his head, although the sail 

 of itself was shade enough at the time, while the other clutched 

 a speaking trumpet. 



The craft, freighted with this uncouth apparition, was very 

 peculiar in appearance. She had been a Spanish gun-boat — 

 originally a twin-sister to one that we had, during the war, cut 

 out from Rosas Bay. She was about sixty feet long over all, 

 and seventeen feet beam, her deck being as round as her bottom ; 

 in fact she was more like a long cask than any thing else, and 

 without exception the roomiest vessel of her size that I ever saw. 

 She had neither bulwarks, nor quarters, nor rail, nor in fact any 

 ledge whatsoever round the gunnel, so she had no use for 

 scuppers. Her stern peaked up like a New Zealand war-canoe, 

 tapering away to a point, which was perforated to receive the 

 rudder-head, while forward she had a sharp beak, shaped like 

 the proa of a Roman galley ; but she was as strong as wood and 

 iron could make her — her bottom being a perfect bed of timbers, 

 so that they might almost have been caulked — and tight as a 

 bottle. What answered to a bowsprit was a short, thick thumb 

 of a stick about ten feet high, that rose at an angle of thirty 

 degrees to the deck of the vessel ; and she had only one mast, a 

 strong stump of a spar, about thirty feet high, stayed well forward, 

 in place of raking aft, high above which rose the large lateen sail 

 already mentioned, with its long, elastic, spliced and respliced 

 yard, tapering away up into the sky until it seemed no thicker 

 than the small end of a fishing rod, which it greatly resembled, 

 when bent by the weight of the line and bait. It was ofjmmense 

 length, and consisted of more than half-a-dozen different pieces. 

 Its heavy iron-shod heel was shackled by a chain a fathom lon;^^, 

 to a strong iron bar, or bolt, that extended athwart the forepart 

 of the little vessel, close to the end of the bowsprit, and to which 

 it could be hooked and unhooked, as need were, when the little 

 vessel tacked, and it became necessary to jibe the sail. 



The outlandish-looking craft slowly approached, and we were 

 now within hail. ** I hope nothing is amiss with Mr. Don- 

 ovan ?" sung out the Commodore. 



" By the powers, but there is tl^ough ! " promptly replied the 

 curious figure with the trumpet and umbrella, in a strong clear 

 voice. A pause. 



