prepared to board her, and, at the least, pilot her in. On the night
previous, a fishing-party of the seamen had gone a long distance to some
detached rocks out of sight from the sealer, and, an hour or two before
daybreak, had returned, having met with no small success. Presuming that
the stranger might have been long off soundings, the good captain put
several baskets of the fish, for presents, into his boat, and so pulled
away. From her continuing too near the sunken reef, deeming her in
danger, calling to his men, he made all haste to apprise those on board
of their situation. But, some time ere the boat came up, the wind, light
though it was, having shifted, had headed the vessel off, as well as
partly broken the vapors from about her.

Upon gaining a less remote view, the ship, when made signally visible on
the verge of the leaden-hued swells, with the shreds of fog here and
there raggedly furring her, appeared like a white-washed monastery after
a thunder-storm, seen perched upon some dun cliff among the Pyrenees.
But it was no purely fanciful resemblance which now, for a moment,
almost led Captain Delano to think that nothing less than a ship-load of
monks was before him. Peering over the bulwarks were what really seemed,
in the hazy distance, throngs of dark cowls; while, fitfully revealed
through the open port-holes, other dark moving figures were dimly
descried, as of Black Friars pacing the cloisters.

Upon a still nigher approach, this appearance was modified, and the true
character of the vessel was plain--a Spanish merchantman of the first
class, carrying negro slaves, amongst other valuable freight, from one
colonial port to another. A very large, and, in its time, a very fine
vessel, such as in those days were at intervals encountered along that
main; sometimes superseded Acapulco treasure-ships, or retired frigates
of the Spanish king's navy, which, like superannuated Italian palaces,