“‘Two years, did ye say—two years only to turn a white Irishman into a nigger?’ exclaimed my countryman with no little alarm. ‘Then faith the sooner I get away back from out of this black-burning country the better—or my own mither down in Ballyshannon won’t be after knowing her own beautiful boy again at all, and my father would be after disowning me, and my sisters and brothers to boot, and Father O’Roony would be declaring that it was a white Christian he made of me, and that I couldn’t be the same anyhow. Take my duds on shore. No. Take ’em below, and I’ll go there too, and remain there too till the ship sails and I’m out of this nigger-making land.’ My countryman kept to his intention, and from that day till the ship sailed, never set foot on shore. You’ll understand that no small number of Irishmen go out to that country, and that the nigger boy had learnt his English from them—for he wasn’t a real Irishman after all, but that my countryman did not find out till he got back to auld Ireland again.
“Och, they are broths of boys the Paddies, but they do make curious mistakes somehow or other, it must be allowed.
“I was one day dining at the mess of some soldier officers, when one of them, a Captain O’Rourke, positively declared on his faith as a gentleman that ‘he had seen anchovies growing on the walls at Gibraltar.’
“Most of the party opened their eyes, but said nothing, for O’Rourke was not a man whose word a quietly-disposed person would wish in his sober moments to call in question.
“Unfortunately, there was present an Englishman, a Lieutenant Brown, into whose head the fumes of the tawny port and ruby claret had already mounted.
“‘Anchovies growing on a wall?’ he blurted out. ‘That’s a cram if ever there was one.’
“O’Rourke was on his feet in a moment,—
“‘What, sir—it’s not you who mean to say that you don’t believe me, I hope?’ he exclaimed, in a voice which meant mischief.
“‘Believe you! I should think I don’t, or any man who can talk such gammon,’ answered Brown, in a tone of defiance.
“As may be supposed, there was only one way in which such a matter could end. Preliminaries were soon settled. The affair would have come off that evening, but it would have broken up the party too soon, and besides it wouldn’t have been fair, as Brown’s hand was not as steady as it might have been. So it was put off till the next morning soon after daylight, when there was a good gathering to see the fun. The English generally took Brown’s side. I of course stood by O’Rourke, not that I was quite sure he was in the right, by-the-by.