Land and Sea 



and their audience with this thrilling tale that 

 until it was concluded they did not lift up their 

 eyes to see a large sailing ship being towed into 

 the port by a steamer. When at length 

 observed she must have given them a nasty 

 turn, for was she not the very vessel from 

 which, as they had just so circumstantially 

 narrated, they had narrowly escaped two or 

 three days before ? And indeed 



" It was that fatal and perfidious bark ; " 



and we may feel no doubt that they greeted 

 her with " curses dark." The inconvenient 

 steamer had found her derelict with some awk- 

 ward augur holes in her bottom, and deemed 

 her a prize worth towing into Funchal. There 

 are some ships that nothing will sink. What 

 became of the poor distressed mariners I 

 do not know ; the sailing ship lay here for 

 some time, while the lawyers wrangled over 

 the salvage, and then sailed away, doubtless in 

 charge of a fresh crew. 



The sea is the home of strange coincidences. 

 One day, a quarter of a century ago, two 

 vessels hom.eward bound left the port together. 

 Their names began with the same three letters. 



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