is indeed altogether suspended, and no boat is permitted to weigh anchor until the commodore fire a gun, and hoist a blue flag at his foretop-gallant-mast head, when the whole squadron run gaily together for the Ranchiera, as the pearl village is called, upon the banks of the Rio de la Hacha. When we joined the fleet no danger was, however, suspected, and by the time that we had taken our station, and let the anchor splash from the bows, about half the barks, which were deepest in the water, had weighed; and hoisting their brown patched sails, scudded away before the last of the sea-breeze. As soon as it became dark each boat hoisted a lantern to its mast-head; the frigate showing two, one above the other, in the foretop-gallant rigging. The night was calm and still. Every now and then we would hear the faint sound of songs, coming over the water from distant barks; and, as hour after hour passed away, it was marked by the clang of the great ship’s bell. Meantime, on board our bark, we were busy preparing for to-morrow’s fishing. The waist was cleared out, and the decks fore and aft lumbered with the coils of rope and old canvas, flung aside to make room for the expected overflow of oysters. Then the baskets to be used in lifting them from the bottom of the sea, strong cages of thick wire, all rusty and bent, were prepared; the tackle was rigged, and lines were affixed to heavy pieces of lead, furnished with handles for the divers to grasp, so as to sink the quicker to the bottom. These preparations over, we cooked and ate our suppers and turned in, leaving but one hand on deck for an anchor watch, as sailors call it.