"Oh, we'll take care he does not play off any tricks upon us," said the captain; and we waited the approach of the boat. As she drew near, she was seen to contain eight men. Four were pulling, one sat in the bows, and the other three in the stern-sheets. If they were armed, it could not be discovered. When they got within hail, the captain asked them what they wanted. They pointed to their mouths, and one answered in Spanish, "Aqua, aqua, por amor de Dios." "They want water, sir, they say," observed the first mate, who prided himself on his knowledge of Spanish. "That's the reason, then, that they were in such a hurry to speak to us," said the captain. "But still, does it not strike you as odd that a vessel should be in want of water in these seas?" "Her water-butts might have leaked out; and some of these Spanish gentry, sir, are very careless about taking enough water to sea," replied the mate, who was biassed by the pleasure he anticipated of being able to sport his Spanish. "Get a water-cask up on deck, and we'll have it ready to give these fellows, whatever they may be," said our humane captain. "Have some pannikins ready to serve it out to them. Thirst is a dreadful thing, and one would not keep a fellow-creature in that state a moment longer than one could help." I do not know what the second mate thought of the strangers, but I remember several of the crew saying that they did not like their looks; and I saw him place a cutlass close to the gun nearest the starboard gangway, while he kept eyeing them in no very affectionate manner. Notwithstanding the heat of the weather, the men in the stern-sheets wore cloaks. On observing this, Bill Tasker said he supposed it was to hide the shabby jackets they wore under them. The other men were dressed in blue shirts, and their sleeves rolled up to the shoulder, with the red sash usually worn by Spaniards round their waist, in which was stuck the deadly _cuchillo_, or cut-and-thrust knife, in a sheath, carried by most Lusitanian and Iberian seamen and their descendants of the New World. They pulled up at once alongside, and before any one attempted to stop them they had hooked on, the man in the bows climbing up on deck, followed by his companions in cloaks, and two of the seamen. The other two remained in the boat, pointing at their mouths, as a sign that they wanted water.