It may not be out of place here to give you a description of Captain Williamson. He was one of the skippers of the last century, the like of which we rarely, if ever, see nowadays. He was part owner in the craft that he sailed, and made a good thing of it. He came of an old Annapolis family, and was a courteous, kindly, Christian gentleman, though stiff and formal in his manners. He fancied that he looked like General Washington, and it was a weakness of his to act and carry himself as nearly as he could after the manner of the General, who, by the by, was a distant relative or connection, though by marriage, if I mistake not. Another weakness of his was a fancy that he would have made a great naval captain if he had only had the opportunity. As it was, he had never smelt fighting powder in all his life; nor was he likely to do so, for, though no coward, he was cautious and careful in the extreme, and would never willingly have entered into action, even with a fighting bum-boat. He always wore a cocked hat, like an admiral, knee-breeches, buckles and pumps, and when he was standing still rested mainly on one foot, with his hands clasped behind him and the knee of the other leg bent, just as General Washington always stands in the pictures that one sees of him. So he sat now, with one knee crossed over the other, very stiff and straight, just as General Washington might have sat if he had been sitting in the cabin. “May I ask which of you is the first mate?” said he. “I’m the first mate, sir,” said Jack. “Mr. Baldwin, I believe?” “Yes, sir.” “Was it you, sir, who conceived the extremely ingenious and clever plan of sending bags or bladders of porpoise hide afloat, with your condition and location inclosed within them?” “No, sir,” said Jack, “it was my mate here,” and he chucked his thumb toward Tom. “It was a very clever thought—very clever indeed,” said Captain Williamson, turning to Tom. “How did you get that black substance with which it was covered?” “We mixed the porpoise blubber with soot,” said Tom. The captain nodded his head. “Very clever indeed,” said he again, “it was very efficacious, for the bladder was quite covered with the substance when we picked it up—so much so, indeed, that my fingers were thoroughly befouled in the handling of it. And was it you, also, who made the map of the island?” “Yes, sir,” said Tom again. Then Captain Williamson nodded his head once more, and said for the third time: “Very clever—very clever, indeed.” Then he told Tom that the _Baltimore_ had picked up the bladder off the Florida coast. “It was,” said he, “but fifty miles out of my course to come to this island, for I am bound for New York harbor. I recognized the situation of the island from the plan of it found enclosed in the bladder.”