all hands! bring ship to anchor, ahoy!
boatswain's mate.
in the meantime isabella had suffered her full share of persecution. shortly after the family had retired from the coast to the vicinity of the city of tepic, where don gaspar had an estate, he had urged her to accept don gregorio before their return to st. blas. the tears and entreaties of the unhappy girl had, however, so far mollified him that he consented to put it off some time longer. a severe fit of the gout, during which isabella attended him with the most assiduous and unremitting affection, had also operated as a powerful auxiliary to her wishes. pressing her affectionately to his bosom one day, the old governor declared his unwillingness to part with her; and, "upon this hint she spake," and easily obtained from him a promise not to trouble her with any matrimonial schemes till she had completed her twenty-second year, and even then, if she felt disinclined to the holy state, she should be at liberty to retire to a convent. as she was not yet twenty-one, she regarded this reprieve as equivalent to a full release, and awaited anxiously the return of the dry season. it came at last, and the family returned to st. blas.
several american ships, whalemen and others, visited the port for supplies, and for the purpose of a little private speculation, with which the custom-house was not troubled. dame juanita's shop, being rather the largest in st. blas, and possessing, moreover, the additional attraction of her own buxom countenance, and that of a pretty daughter behind the counter, was visited daily by the mates and crews of these ships; and of them she inquired, by direction of isabella, concerning the officers of the orion, without success for a long time, till at last the mate of a trader declared that he knew mr. morton very well; that when he saw him last he was engaged fitting out a ship bound round cape horn; and that she was, in all probability, on the coast at that moment, and would most probably soon visit san blas.
this intelligence operated like a cordial upon isabella's spirits; her eyes were constantly directed towards the western horizon; every sail that appeared, caused the utmost trepidation and eager hope; and when the distant sail proved to be some coasting vessel, or the guarda-costa, that was prowling about continually, her disappointment was keen and painful. her cousins laughed at the perseverance with which she watched the harbor; and, fearful of exciting suspicions, she afterwards only looked out upon the blue expanse of ocean when alone.
at last, one lovely morning, just after the sea-breeze had commenced blowing, a white speck was seen in the horizon, that rapidly increased in size, till in two hours it was plain to all eyes that it was a large ship, and many thought a man of war. various were the speculations as to her object, and still more so as to her nation; for coming directly before the wind, her colors could not be seen.
as she approached the anchorage, her light sails were taken in and furled, with a despatch very unlike the manoeuvres of a merchantman, and which confirmed the opinion of her being a man-of-war. presently a flash of red flame and cloud of thick, white smoke issued from her starboard bow, followed by a corresponding one from the other side, and repeated alternately, to the number of twenty-one; but the fourth flash was distinctly visible to those on shore, before the roar of the first gun came booming over the water, awakening the thousand echoes that slumbered in the hills and woods about the city.
the ship, having now reached her intended berth, slowly emerged from her "sulphurous canopy," that the light breeze had kept wrapped around her, like a veil; and, clewing up her topsails, gracefully swept round towards the westward, as if intending to go out to sea again; and, in the evolution, a large, bright-colored, new american ensign floated upon the gentle breeze from her mizen gaff. she remained stationary for an instant, when the anchor was dropped, and the sails furled; and the machine, that but half an hour before,
"walked the waters like a thing of life,"
now lay upon their bosom a dark, motionless, inanimate mass.
