"I said that we were bound for Chili and the western coast of South America. In those days the jealous and narrow-minded commercial policy of Spain prohibited the ships of any other nation than their own trading with her colonies. The consequence was, that those provinces, notwithstanding their internal sources of wealth, remained poor and insignificant, and their inhabitants ignorant and bigoted, while in North America a state was springing up which not only surpassed their whole united provinces in power and influence, but soon became in a condition to bid defiance to the rest of the world. We, therefore, did not hope to carry on a regular trade with these degenerate Spaniards, but our intention was to call off different parts of the coast, and to sell our goods wherever we found people ready to buy them, without troubling ourselves by entering at any custom-house. There was some risk, it is true, in this species of traffic, but there was also some adventure, and it required considerable sagacity and courage, and this exactly suited Derick's taste. I forgot to say that we carried four guns on a side, and were well supplied with muskets, pistols, and boarding-pikes, both to defend ourselves against the Spanish custom-house officers, and also against any piratical rovers, who, in that day, were known at times to frequent those seas, to rob any unarmed merchantmen they might fall in with. "The plan, in dealing with the Spaniards, when I had been in that part of the world before, was to call off the coast two or three leagues away from a town, and to send on shore, by some fishing-boat, to the merchants, to say what goods we had, and that we were ready to deal with them. They would then send back word when they would come, probably on that or the following night. If the weather were fine we used to anchor close in shore, always keeping a bright look out in case of treachery. As soon as it was dark, the merchant", or their agents, would come off in their boats, and take the goods on shore, and pay us good prices in hard dollars. So much for restrictive duties. Scarcely a ship entered at the custom-house at any of those ports, and the Government got no revenue, while, on account of the difficulties and risks, the people had to pay just as much as they would have done for the goods had moderate dues been levied, and the trade been regular and above board. But I am running away from the subject of my story. Well, as I was saying, we made very fine weather of it, though the wind was seldom fair, till we reached about twenty-seven degrees north latitude, when we got into the north-east trade-winds, which carried us along at a spanking pace, with studding sails alow and aloft on either side, till we were nearly in the latitude of Rio do Janeiro. It was enough to make a man vain of his ship, of himself, and of the art which formed her, to see her thus walking along the water, with her wide spread of snowy canvas proudly