you've got to stop lying about us; we don't expect any eulogies, but we 

 have a right to insist that our actions should not be misrepresented to 

 the people at home." The correspondent replied: "Colonel, it's really 

 not my fault; when I wrote what I saw here, I got a wigging and was 

 told that I had been sent here to find fault; the paper won't print any- 

 thing but criticism." 



At long last, after an exasperating wait, we got away from Cuba and 

 set a course that carried us outside of the Bahamas. There, far out of 

 sight of land, we had a little adventure unlike anything that I ever 

 experienced at sea, before or since. We sighted a little, white, Spanish 

 brig, that was lying almost motionless and flying signal of distress. We 

 ran over, to give assistance and, as we came near, the brig's people put 

 up a great blackboard on which was written, in chalk: "We are lost, 

 please give us the longitude." W^hen she had gained the desired infor- 

 mation, the little brig squared away on quite a new course. 



C 242 ] 



