In the Mediterranean we have no cruiser of this rig at all; and the two or three we have elsewhere are commanded by old sea-dogs who have been brought up in that sort of craft.

As for Sirs, they are scarce out here, though the battle of the Nile has made a few of them for the navy.

Then you'll not meet with a nobleman's sort in a clipper like this, for that sort of gentry generally go from a frigate's quarter-deck into a good sloop, as commander, and, after a twelvemonth's work or so in the small one, into a fast frigate again, as a post-captain." Much of this was gibberish to Andrea Barrofaldi, but Griffin being exclusively naval, he fancied every one ought to take the same interest as he did himself in all these matters.

But, while the Vice-governatore did not understand more than half of the other's meaning, that half sufficed to render him exceedingly uneasy.

The natural manner of the lieutenant, too, carried conviction with it, while all the original impressions against the lugger were revived by his statements.
"What say you, Signor Vito Viti ?" demanded Andrea; "you have been present at the interviews with Sir Smees." "That we have been deceived by one of the most oily-tongued rogues that ever took in honest men, if we have been deceived at all, vice-governatore.