On The Day Appointed For
The Wedding, We Took The Captain Ashore In The Gig, And Had Orders
To Come For Him At Night, With Leave To Go Up To The House And See
The Fandango.
Returning on board, we found preparations making for
a salute.
Our guns were loaded and run out, men appointed to each,
cartridges served out, matches lighted, and all the flags ready to
be run up. I took my place at the starboard after gun, and we all
waited for the signal from on shore. At ten o'clock the bride went up
with her sister to the confessional, dressed in deep black. Nearly an
hour intervened, when the great doors of the mission church opened,
the bells rang out a loud, discordant peal, the private signal for
us was run up by the captain ashore, the bride, dressed in complete
white, came out of the church with the bridegroom, followed by
a long procession. Just as she stepped from the church door,
a small white cloud issued from the bows of our ship, which was
full in sight, the loud report echoed among the surrounding hills
and over the bay, and instantly the ship was dressed in flags
and pennants from stem to stern. Twenty-three guns followed in
regular succession, with an interval of fifteen seconds between
each when the cloud cleared away, and the ship lay dressed in her
colors, all day. At sun-down, another salute of the same number
of guns was fired, and all the flags run down.
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