the United States navy?"

Mr Treenail bowed, and said he would; and we shoved off and got on board
again, and now there was the devil to pay, from the perplexity old Deadeye
was thrown into, as to whether, here in the heat of the American war, he
was bound to take this American captain prisoner or not. I was no party to
the councils of my superiors, of course, but the foreign ship was finally
allowed to continue her course.

The next day I had the forenoon watch; the weather had lulled unexpectedly,
nor was there much sea, and the deck was all alive, to take advantage of
the fine blink, when the man at the mast--head sung out--"Breakers right
ahead, sir."

"Breakers!" said Mr Splinter, in great astonishment. "Breakers! why the
man must be mad--I say, Jenkins"

"Breakers close under the bows," sung out the boatswain from forward.

"The devil," quoth Splinter, and he ran along the gangway, and ascended the
forecastle, while I kept close to his heels. We looked out a--head, and
there we certainly did see a splashing, and boiling, and white foaming of
the ocean, that unquestionably looked very like breakers. Gradually, this
splashing and foaming appearance took a circular whisking shape, as if the
clear green sea, for a space of a hundred yards in diameter, had been
stirred about by a gigantic invisible spurtle, until every thing hissed
again; and the curious part of it was, that the agitation of the water
seemed to keep ahead of us, as if the breeze which impelled us had also
floated it onwards. At length the whirling circle of white foam ascended
higher and higher, and then gradually contracted itself into a spinning