the Free that it should 80 civility, and even to a wife affect even the loch." there was nothing for Jack to "Never mind philosophis- say but, "Never mind, it I said impatiently. doesn't matter," although he Look! is that the Free almost gulped over the forChurch? ing," Our education was dear to Jack, but Skeletta considerably dearer, and this remark of mine brought him up from below explosively. "Free Church!" he shouted; "how the devil can you see the Free Church? Good heavens! We're practically on the Glorigs!" The shock of this news was too much for Skeletta. Abandoned by her lord and master to women and dons, she gave one shudder of disgust and dismay, and-stood still! Not so any one else. Jack took two tottering steps and fell flat on his face, the Don dropped the useless symbols of navigation and sat down abruptly amongst them, while M'Leod and Wullie clung to each other in a short and silent fox-trot! The silence, if short, was "significant of much." Then Jack, nursing a bruised elbow, ejaculated -something, and added, "Stuck!" One of the most dreadful things in the world is to have to say something to the victim of one's inexcusable crushing mistake! It ought to count towards retribution that one must just listen to oneself uttering inane fatuities, and it matters little to the humiliation how they are received. But some things are so bad that there is no scope for them but complete mula! Juanita's misunderstanding of the state of matters was also rather endearing and soothing: Oh, I thought we had come "I think it's so extraordinary alongside!" We have rather forcibly," I said. "If you look over this side, you will see what we are up against." About four feet below the surface was a miniature mountain-range, and we were sitting ark-like on its Ararat ! On the other side the sea appeared as bottomless as usual, except towards the bows. "Are we not going to shove off again?" Juanita asked. We had to admit we were kept outside the Committee of Public Safety, and could only guess its policy, but inferred that we were making preparations to stay where we were for a bit. To be thus is nothing; but to be safely thusquoth the Don; and then proceeded to explain the vagaries of tides and the effect on a deep-keeled boat if bereft of supporting water. The whole phenomenon of tides was a complete mystery to Juanita, I knew, also the matter of keels and their shapes; but the Don has the most courteous and useful manner of providing mere women with the facts of the case in the course of conversation, and then listening to their opinions, new-formed thereon, with endearing defer ence. the way you two understand all about these nautical matters! What a comfort it must be to Jack to have such a capable pair to help him!" As we sat thus "helpfully talking, and ostentatiously ignored by the unappreciative Jack, Skeletta, in spite of the strenuous efforts to prevent her, began to show signs of fainting. She had borne the first shock gallantly, but as she saw the ever-supporting element prepare to desert her, her much-tried nerves gave way, and she gently swoonedfortunately towards the rock, and not towards the chasm opening on the seaward side. This choice on her part was not only the tact shown by any elegant female in fainting, but was no doubt due, in some measure, to a rope tied high up her mast, and hauled out to an anchor on the island. The various crutches which had been improvised along the same side failed to support her entirely, for, like the said elegant female, Skeletta is pretty heavy when you try to hold her up. More and more she subsided, till we felt like sliding off the deck. Jack continued to ignore our presence, except to apologise politely for disturbing us whenever their energetic doings necessitated our moving out of his way. It was all very crushing, and Juanita's incense of admiration was more I refloat us, we should have six hours or so in which to exhaust the interests of a knobby rocky islet a few feet square! looked at my watch; I noticed the Don did the same, and then, because as usual his was not going, he asked me the time in a low hopeless whisper. "Half-past four or thereabouts," I whispered back. (Jack is the only person who ever has the right time; the rest of us have just time of a sort. I suppose Jack maintains his is right, because he has so much more data to judge from than any one else, for he keeps innumerable watches and clocks all going, each in case the others come to untimely ends.) The Don's lips moved as though in prayer as we slid, one by one, off the roof-like deck and down the ladder. "Not before eleven o'clock at earliest," were the only words I overheard. (To be concluded.) IN the year 1613, King Philip III. of Spain, son of Bloody Mary's not inconsolable widower, determined to send an Embassy to Shah Abbas the Great of Persia. The object of the Mission was twofold, corresponding to the several interests of the two separate crowns of Spain and Portugal, which, since 1580, had been united in the person of the King of Spain. The first and mainly Spanish interest was to secure the continuance of Persian hostilities against Turkey, in order to keep the Sultan occupied, and divert his attention from Europe. The other, purely Portuguese, concerned the welfare of the Portuguese settlements on the Persian Gulf, about which apprehensions had been aroused (not without solid grounds, as events subsequently proved) by the recent annexation to Shah Abbas's dominions of the Kingdom of Lar. This brought the Persian into direct contact with the Portuguese, and the Mission was to dissuade him from any aggression against these settlements, which he would also be less inclined to undertake if his hands were fully occupied with the Turks. In fact, King Philip ingenuously hoped to manœuvre himself into the position of tertius gaudens between Turkey and Persia. The person chosen as head of the Mission was Don Garcia de Silva y Figueroa, a permanent civil servant, who had for many years been employed in the Foreign Office at Madrid. He was already an elderly man, having been born in 1550, and we learn from the editors of his Commentaries that he was a "notable geographer," while another contemporary traveller, who saw him in Persia, declares him to have had a white beard and no teeth, but to have been robust all the same. His credentials simply describe him as calidad y muy buenas partes." Poor gentleman! he little knew what he was letting himself in for when he accepted the post, doubtless with a view to acquiring fresh geographical knowledge. persona de Although the Ambassador's credentials bore the date of 9th August 1613, it was not until the spring of the following year that the Mission started. The intervening time, we may conjecture, was occupied in preparing the presents, without which no Ambassador could appear before an Oriental potentate. These were numerous and costly, and consisted of the sword which Philip III. had worn on the occasion of his marriage; twenty-two gold chains and a gold cup; a silver tures, which he wrote, obviously for future publication, under the title of 'Comentarios de D. Garcia de Silva y Figueroa de la Embajada que de parte del Rey de España Don Felipe III. hizo al Rey Xa Abbas de Persia.' brazier and a silver writing- start the journal of his adventable; a gilded chest, containing a complete table service in silver; a box of the same metal with pillars of gold; emerald and other rings; pieces of velvet and purple cloth; Milan breastplates, helmets, and arquebuses; a mastiff dog "of notable generosity and strength"; and no less than three hundred camel-loads of pepper, which the editors of the 'Diary' rather indelicately suggest was required to stimulate the jaded nervous system of the polygamous Shah. The whole was valued at over a hundred thousand ducats. It must be confessed that Don Garcia, who imitated Cæsar both in styling his memoirs Commentaries "and in writing of himself in the third person as "El Embajador," was a trifle long-winded, and that he could have set forth the history of his Mission in a quarter of the thousand odd printed pages presented to the reader. But he was of a Donnish turn of mind, in the University as well as the Spanish sense of the word, with a passion for imparting information on every imaginable subject which might crop up, and an insatiable curiosity; and, as it turned out, the habit of keeping a voluminous log must have been a perfect godsend to him in view of the interminable delays which dragged out his expedition to no less than ten years. Nothing particular happened until the Luz got safely round the Cape in August, four months after leaving Lisbon, and turned north-east by the route outside Madagascar, as the standing instructions for shipping were that no vessel rounding the Cape later than 25th July should attempt the passage through the Mozambique Channel. Then the supply of water |