On passing, he touched his hat with
much grace, and in the evening I met him in society. It was Commodore
Decatur. He was very much a Frenchman in manner, or, I should rather
say, in look, for although very well bred, he, for one ingredient, by
no means possessed a Frenchman's volubility; still, he was an
exceedingly agreeable and very handsome man.
The following day we spent in a pleasure cruise amongst the three
hundred and sixty-five Islands, many of them not above an acre in
extent--fancy an island of an acre in extent!--with a solitary house, a
small garden, a red-skinned family, a piggery, and all around clear
deep pellucid water. None of the islands, or islets, rise to any great
height, but they all shoot precipitously out of the water, as if the
whole group had originally been one huge platform of rock, with
numberless grooves subsequently chiselled out in it by art.
We had to wind our way amongst these manifold small channels for two
hours, before we reached the gentleman's house where we had been
invited to dine; at length, on turning a corner, with both lateen sails
drawing beautifully, we ran bump on a shoal; there was no danger, and
knowing that the 'Mudians were capital sailors, I sat still.
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