Two Or Three Spaniards, Who Stood Upon The Beach Looking
At Us, Wrapped Their Cloaks About Them, Shook Their Heads, And
Muttered "Caramba!" They Had No Taste For Such Doings; In Fact,
The Hydrophobia Is A National Malady, And Shows Itself In Their
Persons As Well As Their Actions.
Watching for a "smooth chance," we determined to show the other
boats the way it should be done; and,
As soon as ours floated,
ran out with her, keeping her head on, with all our strength, and
the help of the captain's oar, and the two after oarsmen giving
way regularly and strongly, until our feet were off the ground,
we tumbled into the bows, keeping perfectly still, from fear of
hindering the others. For some time it was doubtful how it would
go. The boat stood nearly up and down in the water, and the sea,
rolling from under her, let her fall upon the water with a force
which seemed almost to stave her bottom in. By quietly sliding
two oars forward, along the thwarts, without impeding the rowers,
we shipped two bow oars, and thus, by the help of four oars and
the captain's strong arm, we got safely off, though we shipped
several seas, which left us half full of water. We pulled
alongside of the Loriotte, put her skipper on board, and found
her making preparations for slipping, and then pulled aboard our
own ship. Here Mr. Brown, always "on hand," had got everything
ready, so that we had only to hook on the gig and hoist it up,
when the order was given to loose the sails.
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