They now soon certified themselves of the fact that they were equally the object of the stranger's notice, since she hove, and in a short time our hero and his crew got alongside, when they found she was an Arab ship, which had been purchasing slaves at Madagascar and on the Abyssinian coast. She was as large as one of our sixty-four gun ships, and had on board 1,600 slaves, chiefly women.

As Fitz mounted to the deck, he could not help smiling at his costume, having nothing to cover his head but a black silk night-cap and his "south-wester," by which name the seamen call a kind of canvass scull-cap, with a flap behind like the London coalheavers, and which is much worn in merchant ships in bad weather, as the flap behind keeps the rain out of the neck.

The captain, a renegado Turk, received our friends very kindly, and the chief-mate, the linkister, was here of very great use to them, as this Arab ship was navigated by a Mozambique Portuguese pilot. The captain having hoisted in all Fitzjohn's boats, allotted part of the halfdeck to himself and crew. Fitz agreed with him

for a certain number of dollars to be landed at Bombay, or put on board any ship bound there, and, when their own provisions should be exhausted, they were to be provided at so much a head; while, on the other hand, it was provided, that if the Arab captain wanted any of Fitzjohn's men to assist in navigating the ship, they were to be fed for nothing, and those who steered were to be paid at the same rate as his own helmsmen, of which Fitz found he had but four.

It may easily be imagined that all hands of the wanderers required rest and quietness, and having obtained this, they soon recovered from their fatigues. The men seemed tolerably happy and very obedient, and Fitz did not hear one word touching their return to the island. One day, on looking over the bows of the ship, Gentleman Jack happened to observe that she had precisely the same kind of grinning lion head, as he had found on the wreck ashore at the island, and he afterwards learned it is the only figure-head the Mussulmen allow to be carried.

From these circumstances, he was led to be

lieve that Ragotum had been peopled by the loss of a ship similarly laden to the one in which they were then embarked; but, on questioning the Portuguese pilot, he had no idea of the existence of any such an island, as that part of the sea was rarely, if ever, approached so true it is, that one half the world is ignorant of the existence of the other.

In three weeks, the Arab ship was nearly abreast of Bombay, and falling in with a grab from the Red Sea bound to that port, Fitz and his men were put on board of her with everything belonging to him, excepting the long-boat, which he took in tow. On leaving the Arab ship, Fitz gave the captain an order on our government for the passage money, and presented him with his sword, in return for which the skipper very kindly presented him with two of the female slaves, adding, with great delicacy, that if he did not like them he might select others.

As Fitzjohn, however, only accepted of the poor souls in order to set them free, he was quite satisfied with the two to whom fortune had

given the happy lot of being thus chosen. On the fourth evening, after thus parting from the Arab, they made Bombay, and to Fitz' great joy discovered the British men-of-war's pendants flying. Before, however, they got into the harbour, the mates and men, one and all, came aft, and claimed Fitzjohn's promise of being allowed to return to the island, which he kept by mentioning their wishes on the first possible moment to the commander-in-chief, but to these the latter would by no means accede; Fitzjohn communicated this answer to his men, adding that his power of assistance ceased-to which remark, though murmuring not a little at the disappointment, they were obliged to assent.

CHAPTER VIII.

"A faithful friend is the medicine of life."

SPANISH PROVERB.

IN dismissing the subject of the love-stricken mates and seamen in the last chapter, my laudable anxiety for their lacerated feelings induced me to hurry a little in advance of my narration. As a true lover of justice, therefore, let me now take up the last. Fitzjohn, having dismissed his appellants with that promise, both the fact and futility of which we have recorded, resumed with increasing eagerness his inspection of his majesty's vessels at Bombay.