One's
very sufferings may endear them to a place. But Fernando's chief regret
was in leaving the friend of his childhood. Sukey and he shed manly
tears as each saw the face of his friend fade from view.
Terrence soon ingratiated himself into the favor of Captain Bones, who
had a weakness for punch and whist. Terrence knew how to brew the punch
to the taste of the captain, and could play whist so artistically, that
the captain could, by the hardest sort of playing, just win.
Terrence boasted of excellent family connection, and gave as his reason
for his not having a mid-shipman's commission, that his father objected
to the sea, and he had been impressed instead of entering the navy of
his own accord. Bones was not as punctilious as most captains,
especially when Terrence could brew such excellent punch, and Terrence
soon became a favorite and came and went at pleasure in the captain's
cabin. When the captain imbibed quite freely, he often hinted at a
promotion for Terrence.
Fernando paid little attention to the course of the vessel. He had been
in nearly all the parts of the world, and seldom asked which continent
they were on, or in what waters they sailed. He was sober, silent and
melancholy.
One bright August day in 1811, they were off some coast, he knew not
what. All day the weather had been glorious. Toward sunset, the clouds
began to gather in heavy masses to the southeast, and a little later a
heavy breeze sprang up from that direction.
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