"Yes," assented Lotta, "they were my father's trustees, and my guardians, empowered to look after my interests and manage the estates until I should arrive at the age of eighteen.  When I was seven years of age the trustees decided to send me over to Old Spain to be educated, and I accordingly went, in charge of the wife of one of them, with Mammy to look after me.  I was educated at the convent of Santa Clara, in Seville, where I remained until my fourteenth birthday, when I was taken out of the convent and placed on board a ship bound to Havana, my guardians having decided that I had received as much education as was necessary, and that the time had arrived when I ought to return to Cuba and take my place as mistress of my household and owner of the vast estate of which I was the heiress.  Then a terrible misfortune befell us: the ship on board which I was a passenger caught fire, and was utterly destroyed, and everybody was obliged to take refuge in the boats.  Then, to add still further to our misery, a gale sprang up, and the boats became separated.  We suffered dreadfully during that gale, and were several times in the greatest danger of being drowned.  Then, when the gale was over, the sailors in our boat knew not in which direction to steer, and so we went drifting aimlessly hither and thither, not knowing where we were going, but hoping, day after day, that a ship would come in sight and pick us up.  And very soon our food and water became exhausted, and our sufferings intensified to such an extent that some of the men went mad and threw themselves into the sea. As for me, I became so weak at last that I lost consciousness, and did not again revive until I found myself on board the _Barracouta_, with Mammy looking after me.  We arrived here before I was well enough to walk, and here I have remained ever since, that is to say, nearly two years."