pping a couple of armed boats into the water, we luffed round her
bows, and there we saw that cursed schooner--venomous snake as she
was--just hoisting her sails, and creeping away to windward.

"We let her have two or three divisions of grape, and followed the dose
up with round shot. I am sure we hit her, and that pretty hard, for we
knocked away her fore-top-mast, and we saw the splinters fly in showers
from her hull. However, she was well handled, and lying nearer the wind
than the 'Scourge,' when day dawned she was clear out of range, and
leaving us every minute. So we up helm and ran down again to the brig,
to see what mischief had been done and to pick up our boats.

"Ah! yes, you all know what had taken place, so I won't go over the
details; but the same afternoon, after seeing the brig pointed straight
for Port Royal, and while we were once more on our course, we fell in
with a water-logged boat, in which were half a dozen dead and dying men.
One, a mongrel Indian from Yucatan, who was frightfully torn by two or
three grape-shot, before he died on board--as did all the others--gave
us, in his confused dialect, some account of the pirate he had served
under, and the haunt he frequented. As near as we could learn, the haunt
was situated somewhere on the south side of Cuba, on a rocky island
having a safe and secure inlet; but as he did not know the latitude or
longitude, we were left somewhat in the dark. The last words, however,
the mangled wretch uttered, as the gasping breath was leaving his body,
were, that the spot could be distinguished by a tall cocoa-nut-tree
which grew from a craggy eminence in the middle of the island. We buried
them all, pirates as they were, decently, and then we clapped on all
sail on our course.

"Steward, another bottle of the old Southside that Mr. March sent me
from Madeira! Here, Domino, take Mr. Mouse up gently, and lay him down
on my cot in the after cabin. Dear little fellow, he is sound asleep;
and mind you draw the curtains around him, lest he take cold from the
draught of the stern windows!"

Rather a striking contrast this to the way Captain Brand, the pirate,
treated the little Henri in the den there in the Doce Leguas.

"Well, gentlemen, for some weeks after these occurrences we sailed about
the islands, touching here and there, until at last we arrived at the
Havana, took in stores and water, and then continued the cruise. The
orders were to beat up the south side