Just as when you come to the old cabin at Fanad, and want to reach Kilgorman, you find a mile or two of water in your way, which, though it has to be traversed, belongs neither to one side nor to the other, so I reckon those years as years by themselves, making only a break in the coast-line of my story.
The _Diana_, spent most of her time in foreign waters, whither no news of any of those I desired to hear of reached me.

For a year we cruised in the West Indies, fighting Frenchmen and yellow fever and pirates.
Then a summons came to take a convoy into Indian waters, where we were engaged in protecting English merchantmen from the depredations of French and Spanish privateers.

Then, just as the welcome order to return to Europe arrived, an engagement in the Persian Gulf disabled us, and compelled us to put into the nearest port for repairs.

And before we were fit to sail again, a sudden demand for reinforcements in the West Indies called us back there, where we fought the Frenchmen every other day.
That was the one part of the business I liked best.

Every broadside we poured into the enemy helped to wipe out my scores against the Republic One and Indivisible.