232 LOSS OF A SPANISH FRIGATE. 
We remained the rest of the day in the delieious island and 
enjoyed great pleasure. Toward evening we all repaired to 
our respective ships, excepting Don Louis, who resolved to 
pass the night in mine. The next morning we parted, each 
vessel resumed her course, and our voyage was so successful, 
that on the following day, at seven in the evening, we came in 
sight of the so-much-wished-for port. Nothing but rejoicing 
was now heard among tiie crew, who could scarcely moderate 
their transports. For my part,. I was so overjoyed that I gave 
my crew a cask of wine containing about ten gallons ; and a 
Genoese merchant on board made them a present of another. 
The sailors were too strongly disposed to present gratification 
to defer till the next day the enjoyment of such an agreeable 
present. They tapped it immediately, and finding the wine 
excellent, they began to make copious libations to Bacchus. 
The pilot, who was at their head, encouraged them by his ex- 
ample. They played their parts so well, that in a short time 
the casks were emptied, and they soon experienced the effects 
of their intemperance. 
The Genoese merchant,, fearing lest some mistake might oc- 
cur in the working of the ship, very prudently determined to 
place himself between the pilot and the man at the helm, who 
steered by his orders ; because he had observed that the for- 
mer, who was stretched on a chair and quite intoxicated ^ gave 
directions from memory, as being within view of a port with 
which he was perfectly acquainted. The merchant, therefore, 
placed himself at an equal distance from each, to repeat the 
pilot's order. This excess of precaution was our ruin ; for 
the pilot having called to the steersman^ "-To the north-west," 
which was actually the course we should have taken to reach 
Galdera, the merchant cried out stammering, " To the north- 
north-west." The helmsman conceiving the pilot had given 
this direction, steered, without hesitation, N. N. W. which, 
while it carried us farther from the port, at the same time 
brought us nearer the land. 
Night meanwhile came on, and the passengers and I were 
sleeping in profound security. About two in the morning, be- 
ing suddenly awaked by the noise of the waves furiously dash- 
ing against the rocks on the coast, I jumped up and exclaimed 
in astonishment, " How now, pilot ? Are we already enter- 
ing the port ?" At the second or third repetition of these ques- 
tions the pilot, rousing himself from his drunken lethargy, 
and rising from his chair to look about him, perceived with 
horror tha.t i^e frigate was on the point of striking against a 
