There are four of them, astride a spar; which also carries a sail, partially reefed around it, and partially permitted to drag loosely through the water. At a glance a sailor could have told that the spar on which they are supported is a topsail-yard, which has been detached from its masts in such a violent manner as to unloose some of the reefs that had held the sail, thus partially releasing the canvas. But it needed not a sailor to tell why this had been done. A ship has foundered somewhere near the coast. There has been a gale two days before. The spar in question, with those supported upon it, is but a fragment of the wreck. There might have been other fragments,--others of the crew escaped, or escaping in like manner,--but there are no others in sight. The castaways slowly drifting towards the sand-spit are alone. They have no companions on the ocean,--no spectators on its shore. As already stated, there are four of them. Three are strangely alike,--at least, in the particulars of size, shape, and costume. In age, too, there is no great difference. All three are boys: the oldest not over eighteen, the youngest certainly not a year his junior. In the physiognomy of the three there is similitude enough to declare them of one nation,--though dissimilarity sufficient to prove a distinct provinciality both in countenance and character. Their dresses of dark blue cloth, cut pea-jacket shape, and besprinkled with buttons of burnished yellow,--their cloth caps, of like color, encircled by bands of gold lace,--their collars, embroidered with the crown and anchor, declare them, all three, to be officers in the service of that great maritime government that has so long held undisputed possession of the sea,--midshipmen of the British navy. Rather should we say, had been. They have lost this proud position, along with the frigate to which they had been attached; and they now only share authority upon a dismasted spar, over which they are exerting some control, since, with their bodies bent downwards, and their hands beating the water, they are propelling it in the direction of the sand-spit. In the countenances of the three castaways thus introduced, I have admitted a dissimilitude something more than casual,--something more, even, than what might be termed provincial. Each presented a type that could have been referred to that wider distinction known as a nationality.