336 TKAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



appointed, and a guard of sixteen men told off. Nor 

 did the fact that no social distinction existed be- 

 tween the men and officers in any way affect the 

 maintenance of discipline; the men lived forward, 

 the officers aft, and they mixed but rarely together, 

 though now and then absurd mistakes arose among 

 some of the younger and inexperienced officers at 

 drill, one of whom I heard say to his company, 

 " Break rank, gentlemen ; right flank march ! " I 

 am bound to say that the gentlemen behaved them- 

 selves as such. They were exercised daily at drill, 

 to which they seemed to take instinctively. The 

 officers of the day wore swords buckled round their 

 shooting-coats, as insignia of rank, otherwise they 

 were guiltless of uniform, while the men presented 

 an extraordinary variety of costume. Some wore red 

 flannel shirts and high jackboots ; others, in seedy 

 black, were clerical in appearance, as though they 

 belonged to a sort of church militant ; some were 

 neat and respectable, others detestably shabby and 

 ragged; still, for the most part, their countenances 

 were not ill-favoured, and so strong was my confi- 

 dence in their honesty at last, that I did not take 

 those precautions with regard to my cabin door 

 which I should have done, and all my property was 

 abstracted. My only consolation was, that my 

 fellow-sufferer in the same cabin was the colonel 

 himself. On ]^ew Year's Day we passed Point 

 Antonio, the western extremity of Cuba, which im- 



