The lieutenant now, at his request, gave the correct latitude; when, finding himself farther to the eastward than he expected, he asked leave to keep company with us for a couple of days, as a protection against the visits of the contraband traders. Having got the course we were steering, which, he said, would suit, although a little too westerly for him, we rose to depart, and wished the skipper good-night. "It is dead calm now, sir," said he; "possibly you will do me the favour to allow me to introduce you to my _family_, as I call my Moravian friends. They are all at tea, I believe, in the round-house, on deck." As I stepped off the ladder, I saw that he was right, that it was, in fact, quite calm; and there was the little Midge, close to, with her long taper yard wallopping about, and the sail giving a floundering flap every now and then, as she rolled about on the heave of the sea. "Mr Marline" (we were so near that there was no use for a speaking-trumpet), "keep close to, if you please--I will be on board presently." "Ay, ay, sir." Lanyard then turned to mine host, and followed him towards the round-house, which was built on deck, with a gangway all round it, along which the tiller ropes led; the wheel being situated under the small projecting canopy facing the quarterdeck. All had been dark when we came on deck--the only light being the one in the binnacle, but now the round-house was very handsomely lit up by two lamps hung from the roof, which shone brilliantly through the open door and the two windows that looked towards the quarterdeck. The wheel, with the sailor who was steering standing by it, was right in the wake of the stream of light from the door. It was striking to see his athletic figure, leaning on the rim of the wheel, his right hand grasping one of the lower spokes, while the left clutched the uppermost, on which his cheek rested; the jerk of the rudder in the calm twitching his head first on this side, then on t'other. But the scene within--I shall never forget it. The round-house was a room, as near as might be, sixteen feet long, and about fourteen feet broad at the end next the quarterdeck, narrowing to ten feet wide at the aftermost part. On each side there were two sofas, and between each of the sofas two doors, that appeared to open into state-rooms;--two shorter sofas ran across the afterpart, fronting you as you entered; and placed between these two aftermost sofas, there was a neat brass cabin grate, now tastefully filled with a bouquet of artificial flowers. In the centre of the cabin there was a long table, on which stood a tea equipage, the grateful vapour whirling up from a massive tea-pot. A venerable-looking old man, dressed in a large grey frieze night-gown, with a large velvet cap on his head, from beneath which long white locks escaped and spread over his shoulders, sat directly fronting the door on one of the sofas that ran athwart ships.