378 The Story of the New England Whalers 



clouds sailing lazily in the upper air. Flores, 

 which was sending off to us, even at this distance, 

 her perfumes of shrub and flower, lay sleeping in 

 the moonlight. The rocky islets that rise like so 

 many shafts out of the sea, devoid of all vegetation 

 and at different distances from the shore, looked 

 weird and unearthly. The boats, moving swiftly 

 and mysteriously toward the shore, might have 

 been mistaken, when they had gotten a little dis- 

 tance from us, for Venetian gondolas with their 

 peaked bows and sterns, especially when we 

 heard coming over the sea, a song, sung by a 

 powerful and musical voice, and chorussed by 

 all the boats. Those merry fellows were thus 

 making light of misfortune, and proving that the 

 sailor, after all, is the true philosopher. But 

 little I dreamed, as I stood on the deck of the 

 Alabama, and witnessed the scene I have de- 

 scribed, that four years afterward it would be 

 quoted against me as a violation of the laws of 

 war ! And yet so it was. It was alleged by the 

 malice of my defamers, who never have and 

 never can forgive me for the destruction of their 

 property, that miles away at sea, in rough and 



