The Arkansas advocate., 1834-11-14

Oh thou invisible spirit of wine .-if thou hast no name to be known by, let IS call thee-devi." ISHAKspeARE.
 Some eighteen months, or two years ago, was doing my duty to my country and myself on board His Majesty's frigate the Astrea, by undergoing seventeen games of chess per diem, with our first lieutenant. and filing up every pause with murmnrs at the continuance of these piping times of peace. We had been cruising some months in the Mediterranean, chiefly for the amuse- ment ot two dandy cousins of an honorable i Captain, whom wes picked up at Malta, basklng like two yellow, oser-ripe gourds in the sunshine. We had touched at most of the ports of the Ionlans, where cyprus may be had for paying for; and where fal- dettas are held by hands as fair as their CO., quettIsh folds are black and lustrous. We had done due service to the state, by catch ing agues; snipe-shootine in the Albanian marshes; listening to ive-year old operas, screeched by fifty year old prima donnas j; by learning to swear by Saint Spiridon, and ct his Klephtie votaries. We bad spouted in the school of Homer, and shou- ted at Lepanto; poured libahons on the grave of Anaereon; and voted the Leuca- dian leap trife, compared with a Leices- tershire fence
 Al length, one beautiful evening, one of those twllights of chrysolite and gold, such as poets dream of, and tbe Levant alone can realize, (having been for three preced- ing days, not :" spel-bound," but calm bound among the clustering Cyclades," 1t was the pleasure of our honorable Cap- tain, and his cousins, to drop anchor in the Bay of--, Il have reasons of my own for not being more explicit ) where, after swearing the usual number of oaths at inc quarantine officers, and the crews of the Venetian and Turkish traders, who make it part of their religion to give offence to the blue-jackets-where offence can be given with impunity, 1 had the satisfaction to find myself, at about seven o'clock, P. M., seated at the mess of His Maiesty's gallant -th, doing as much justice to the roast beef of Old England as If we had not been within a days sail of the Island of the Minotaur. It was, indeed, refreshing to listen to the king's English, in is own accents to eat of the kings sirioin. in its own gravy; and to join in the ,largon of horse flesh, in its own slang ito hear the names of Newmarket, Whites, Tattersall's, Ellen Tree, and Fanny Kemble, familiar in their mouths as household words to throw off in short, for an hour or two the tedium of professional existence. A bum- per of port appeared as palatable in ell- mate where the thermometer stood at SS in the shade, as amid the elammy fogs of the cold North and, at length, after liberal indulgence in Hudson's best, (only the more reished because the richest Turkey tobacco, and pipe of cherry wood was in the hands of every soldier in the garrison,} proposal were made for a bowl of 4 Gin Punch!p Lord Thomas Howard, a heu- tenant in the -th, was announced to be a master hand in the scientific brew and the very name of gin-punch affords, in the fla therland of Archilles, a sort of antlcllmax, which there was no resisting. The mate- rials were brought. The regimenta bowl, in which Pcton himself IS recorded to have plunged the lade lemons from the islands redolent of romance and poetry and a bottle of Hodges best, redolent of Hol- born Hill, appeared in as orderly array as though We had been supping at Llmmer's.
 .' Are you punch-drinkerl" inquired my neighbor, Captain Wargrave, with whom, as a school-fellow of my elder brother's, I had quickly made acquaintance.
 "If may venture to own 1t, no!'' said f; Il have swallowed too much puch on com pulsion in the course of my life"
 "I judge as much from your looks," re- piled Wargrave, who had promised to see me on board the frigate. If you want to get away from these noisy fellows, we can easily slip off while Lord Thomas and his operations engage their attentiop."
 And, in compliance with the hint, l soon found myself sauntering with him, arm in arm, on the bastions of, -. We had an hour before us for the Captains gig was not ordered til eleven; and, in order to keep and eye at once on the Erigate and the shore, we sat down on an abutment of the parapet, to gossip away the time; interrupt ed only by the measured tramp of the sen- tinels, and enjoying the freshness of the night night iiiT, perfaaaed by jiessamine. and or ange blossoms, proceeding from thetrelllced gardens of the Government House. As l am net ambitious of writing bad Byron, my readers must allow me to spare them the description of night in Greece; a lieu- tenant of H. M. s. the Astraa, and cap tain of H. Ms gallant --th, may be sup posed to entertain Hotspur's prejudlces against ballad-mongers