The barque was named _Don Miguel_, of three hundred and forty-seven tons measurement, hailing from Havana; with a crew of fifty-six, all told; and she mounted twelve twelve-pounders, with an ample supply of ammunition for them in her magazine.  The brigantine rejoiced in the name _El Caiman_.  She was a trifle bigger than I had estimated her to be, her papers showing her tonnage to be two hundred and thirty.  She carried a crew of forty; and mounted eight beautiful brass long nines on her broadsides, as well as a long eighteen pivoted on her forecastle. She hailed from Santiago de Cuba, and was quite a new ship; whereas the _Don Miguel_ was nearly twenty years old, and leaked like a basket when heavily pressed by her canvas, as some of us soon discovered.