"
"So they are, Swinburne, and better too, and I promise you a good stiff
one to-morrow evening."
"That will do, sir: now then, I'll tell you all about it, and more about
it too than most can, for I know how the action was brought about."
I have the log, marked the board, and then sat down abaft on the signal
chest with Swinburne, who commenced his narrative as follows:--
"You must know, Mr Simple, that when the English fleet came down the
Mediterranean, after the 'vackyation of Corsica, they did not muster
more than seventeen sail of the line, while the Spanish fleet from
Ferrol and Carthagena had joined company at Cadiz, and 'mounted to near
thirty. Sir John Jervis had the command of our fleet at the time, but as
the Dons did not seem at all inclined to come out and have a brush with
us, almost two to one, Sir John left Sir Hyde Parker, with six sail of
the line, to watch the Spanish beggars, while he went in to Lisbon with
the remainder of the fleet, to water and refit. Now, you see, Mr Simple,
Portugal was at that time what they calls neutral, that is to say, she
didn't meddle at all in the affair, being friends with both parties, and
just as willing to supply fresh beef and water to the Spaniards as to
the English, if so be the Spaniards had come out to ax for it, which
they dar'n't. The Portuguese and the English have always been the best
of friends, because we can't get no port wine anywhere else, and they
can't get nobody else to buy it of them; so the Portuguese gave up their
arsenal at Lisbon, for the use of the English, and there we kept all our
stores, under the charge of that old dare-devil, Sir Isaac Coffin.
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