The money here is very different from France. It is the _reis_, not the franc, that demands your careful attention. It takes sixteen hundred reis to make an American dollar, and when you get change for ten dollars or so, you get a basketful of junk that looks like so many United Cigar Store coupons. It costs about a million reis to buy a good meal, but the food is excellent and we get real honest-to-goodness hot rolls, just like back home, but about as big as a football. I brought a dozen back to the batteau last night and when I came to pay for them I handed the gink about seventeen hundred thousand reis, more or less. It makes you swell up and feel richer than Rockefeller to be handing out fortunes in this careless way, and it’s lucky for us, as the ship has not been paid off in the Lord knows when and most of us are flat broke. However, the moving-picture theatres are good and fairly cheap, and Charlie Chaplin is here, and we are allowed to stay ashore until eleven-thirty at night, which is a long liberty for a foreign port. It was difficult for the officers of the _Corsair_ to maintain the customary round of duty and discipline while the ship was under repair, with a crowd of Portuguese artisans aboard, many distractions ashore, and things more or less upset, but they succeeded in enforcing the high standards of the United States Navy aboard. No more gratifying evidence of this could be desired than the following letter from the Secretary of the Navy: _March 11th, 1918_ To Commanding Officer, U.S.S. Corsair. ” ” ” ” Preston. _Subject_: GOOD BEHAVIOR OF MEN IN LISBON. The Department is much gratified to receive through the State Department an excellent report of the behavior of the men of the _Corsair_ and _Preston_ during their stay in Lisbon. The following is an extract from the letter of the American Minister: I am sure that the Department will be pleased to know, as well, that all the men behaved splendidly and made a very creditable impression in Lisbon. It is needless for me to say that I was very much gratified by it all and personally felt that our men were worthy of the cordial attention and generous hospitality bestowed upon them by the Portuguese people and others. This evidence of good discipline reflects credit alike on the officers and men of the ships and on the Naval Service. (Signed) JOSEPHUS DANIELS