"I was seized with fever two days after this, but nothing farther occurred to the polacre worth recording, until we arrived at Havanna on that day fortnight. When we anchored, I was still very weak, and unable to leave my hammock, which, as before mentioned, was slung in the captain's cabin. On the day after we arrived, the slaves were all cleaned and had on deck, and people set to purify the hold, and get every thing in order, preparatory to a sale of the poor devils, which was to take place that afternoon. "I could hear a number of voices wrangling on deck in Spanish, French, and English; and after a while the captain came down to the cabin, followed by several of his customers, whom he had invited to take refreshments, precisely as a horsedealer treats _his_ after a good day's sale. There was a Frenchman, two or three Spanish planters, and an American gentleman, in the party. The first and last, happily for me, proved to be Mr Duquesné, the master of the house we are in, and his partner, Mr Hudson, who good-naturedly enquired of the captain which of his officers it was who lay sick in the hammock. He at once told them what he knew of me; the tale was romantic enough to engage their curiosity; and Mr Hudson, with a friendliness that I never can forget, kindled possibly more warmly in consequence of his son being of the same profession in the American navy, asked my leave to have me conveyed on shore to lodgings. I thanked him, with tears in my eyes; and by the time he returned for me at nightfall, I had contrived to get myself dressed as decently as I could--my whole apparel, by the way, consisting of my trousers and shirt, and a piece of a red silk sash bound round my waist--and to crawl on deck to await his coming. "At length he came alongside, and enquired if I was ready. I said I was, and turned to thank the captain of the polacre; but although he had been on deck the moment before, he was now nowhere to be seen. One of the people said he had gone down to the cabin, and I accordingly asked him to give my compliments, and say that I would be happy to thank him for all his kindness before bidding him good-by; but the man came to the gangway, and told me that the companion hatch had been locked from within, and that he dared not open it. 'Very odd sort of person,' thought I; but as I had no inducement to press my attentions upon one who had given me so broad a hint to be off, I stepped into the boat, in which I encountered Mr Duquesné himself, who, on perceiving that I was so much better than he expected, and that there were no bad symptoms about me, would not hear of my going to a lodging-house, but insisted on accommodating me with an apartment in his own.