66 THE PILOT DEDO. 



and steadily steered, or the consequences might 

 have been serious. In the evening the Alburkah 

 hove in sight, and came to an anchor off the bar. 

 My friend the pilot did not keep his promise 

 to-day. Probably the reason he did not make 

 his appearance arose from being kept so long a 

 prisoner yesterday ; and as we had found our way 

 safely in over the bar, I thought it not improba- 

 ble that we should have a visit from him the 

 next morning. This fellow Dedo has the reputa- 

 tion of being a great scoundrel, and of having wil- 

 fully lost several trading vessels on the bar : but 

 though I have no partiality for the man, it is but 

 justice to say that the rapidity of the ebb-tide 

 appears to me to have had a great deal more to 

 do with it than the pilot. The ebb sets directly 

 across the windward bar, and any captain of a 

 vessel not aware of this peculiarity naturally hugs 

 the windward reef in going out. If it should fall 

 calm, or the wind should lull for a minute, he is 

 lost, as the tide sweeps him instantly on the reef. 

 It is the nature of man, be he black or white, to 

 lay the blame of his misfortunes upon every one 

 but himself; and this unfortunate pilot Dedo has 

 had to bear the obloquy of all the wrecks that 

 have happened in the river Nun. 



