Willis gave up his own cabin to Clara and De Vere, and slung his hammock on the berth-deck. Every thing was done to make the Scorpion’s men comfortable; and their fears were soon relieved, for they, as their commander, had felt a good many misgivings about their future fate, when they first learned they were on board of the Maraposa, the vessel they had used so roughly.
As soon as De Vere had attended to the comfort of Clara, Willis asked him how he had met with such a misfortune to his vessel, and whither he was bound? De Vere detailed all the circumstances, and asked Willis how it happened that he was so far to the northward of his usual cruising ground. Willis said that it was by no good-will of his own, but that some of De Vere’s friends—a sloop-of-war and a brig—had chased him so hard, as he was going from Cuba to the coast, that he had been compelled to hold to the northward to get rid of them; and that he was on his way back to Africa when he first saw the wreck of the brig, but he would be happy to carry De Vere and his wife back to Havana.
This was the very thing De Vere and Clara most anxiously desired, though neither were willing to request it of Willis; but when he thus generously offered it, they thankfully accepted his proposal. The schooner’s course was altered a little more to the westward, and the Maraposa was once more heading for Havana.
They were thirty days on the passage; during which time both De Vere and Clara had an opportunity of impartially judging Willis, and were so much prepossessed in his favor, that De Vere wondered how he could have ever entertained such an opinion as he formerly had of him; and in their conversations together, the English captain and his wife both expressed a great desire to prevail upon Willis to leave his present profession. But how to influence him they knew not, for though he was most affable and communicative on all other topics, whenever he was asked about his present pursuit, he would only say that circumstances, over which he had no control, had first compelled him to enter, and still retained him in it; and then he would turn the conversation, so that delicacy forbade his passengers saying any thing more to him.
It was a bright clear day when they arrived in sight of the Havana light-house; a gentle breeze was blowing, and the water was nearly smooth. Clara was on deck with her husband, and was in raptures at the sight of her native isle, and the thoughts of soon seeing her father and sister again, and comparing in her mind the beauty and apparent security of the present scene with the late fearful ones she had passed through, as the rich voice of Willis sounded close to her.
“Your late dangers, fair lady, I hope, have not so much impaired your nerves, that you would be afraid to trust yourself in a small boat on this quiet water for a short time?”
“Oh, no, Captain Willis! I assure you, I am now quite a sailor, and would think nothing of it!”
“I am very glad to hear it, lady, and trust you will not think I am inhospitable if I soon put your courage to the test. Had you been fearful, I should have run into the harbor; but as you are not, it will be much to my convenience to go only to the entrance of the port, and send you in in a boat.”
De Vere, who had been standing near enough to overhear the conversation, now stepped up, and said he sincerely hoped, indeed he asked it as a personal favor, that Captain Willis would go into Havana, to enable him to show his gratitude, and repay him for his vessel’s loss of time in bringing them there.
Clara, too, joined her husband in urging Willis to go into the harbor, and come to her father’s house with them; saying Don Manuel would hardly forgive Francisca for not bringing him before, and now that he was a second time the preserver of the family, she was sure her father would never forgive her.