man-skin,'" said the Captain, evidently with the intention of
affecting the mate's feelings, and drawing his mind from its dark
forebodings.

"Well, Skipper, I pray for a happy deliverance," said the mate, "but
if we make Charleston with her, it'll be a luck that man nor mermaid
ever thought of. I hearn a good deal o' tell about Charleston, and
the Keys. That isn't one of the places our stewards are so 'fraid
of, and where owners don't like to send their ships when they can
find freight in other ports?"

"I expect it is, sir; but I apprehend no such trouble with any of my
crew," answered the Captain promptly. "I sail under the faith of my
nation's honor and prowess, the same as the Americans do under
theirs. We're both respected wherever we go, and if one little State
in the Union violates the responsibility of a great nation like
that, I'm mistaken. Certainly, no nation in Christendom could be
found, that wouldn't open their hearts to a shipwrecked sailor. I
have too much faith in what I have heard of the hospitality of
Southerners, to believe any thing of that kind."

"Talk's all very well, Skipper," said the mate; "but my word for it,
I know'd several ships lying in the Mersey, about three years ago,
bound to Southern ports for cotton. White stewards worth any thing
couldn't be had for love nor money, and the colored ones wouldn't
ship for ports in Slaves States. The Thebis got a colored man, but
the owners had to pay him an enormous advance, and this, too, with
the knowledge of his being locked up the whole time he was in port;
thus having to incur the very useless expense of supplying his
place, or find boarding-house accommodations for the officers and