At first he could not help me, from laughing so much; but at last he forced open the jaw of the fish with his cutlass, and I got my finger out, but very badly torn indeed.

I then took off my garter, tied it round the tail of the skate, and dragged it to the boat, which was all ready to shove off.

The other boats had found it impossible to get the vessels off without unloading--so, in pursuance of the captain's orders, they were set on fire, and before we lost sight of them, had burnt down to the water's edge.

My finger was very bad for three weeks, and the officers laughed at me very much, saying that I narrowly escaped being made a prisoner of by an "old maid." We continued our cruise along the coast, until we had run down into the Bay of Arcason, where we captured two or three vessels, and obliged many more to run on shore.

And here we had an instance showing, how very important it is that a captain of a man-of-war should be a good sailor, and have his ship in such discipline as to be strictly obeyed by his ship's company.