EMBARCATION FOR HAVANA. 461 



it was over. Resuming our journey, in an hour more 

 we met a train of caleches, with officers in uniform. 

 We stopped, congratulated the general upon his victory 

 at Campeachy, inquired for a United States' sloop-of- 

 war which we had heard was there during the block- 

 ade, and, with many interchanges of courtesy, but with- 

 out seeing a feature of each other's faces, resumed our 

 separate roads. An hour before daylight we reached 

 Sisal, at six o'clock we embarked on board the Spanish 

 brig Alexandre for Havana, and at eight we were un- 

 der way. 



It was the twenty-fourth of June ; and now, as we 

 thought, all our troubles were ended. The morning 

 was fine. We had eight passengers, all Spanish; one 

 of whom, from the interior, when he came down to the 

 shore and saw the brig in the offing, asked what ani- 

 mal it was. From my great regard to the captain, I 

 will not speak of the brig or of its condition, particular- 

 ly the cabin, except to say that it was Spanish. The 

 wind was light ; we breakfasted on deck, making the 

 top of the companion-way serve as a table under an 

 awning. The captain told us we would be in Havana 

 in a week. 



Our course lay along the coast of Yucatan toward 

 Cape Catoche. On Sunday, the 28th, we had made, 

 according to the brig's reckoning, about one hundred 

 and fifty miles, and were then becalmed. The sun was 

 intensely hot, the sea of glassy stillness, and all day a 

 school of sharks were swimming around the brig. From 

 this time we had continued calms, and the sea was like 

 a mirror, heated and reflecting its heat. On the Fourth 

 of July there was the same glassy stillness, with light 

 clouds, but fixed and stationary. The captain said we 

 were incantado or enchanted, and really it almost seem- 



