asy security that no such
adventure as this ever happened before; for here were these two
innocent young creatures upon board of a craft that no one, under such
circumstances as those recounted above, could doubt was a pirate or
buccaneer, the crew whereof had seen no one knows what wicked deeds;
yet they two as remote from all that and as profoundly occupied with
the transports of their passion and as innocent in their satisfaction
thereof as were Corydon and Phyllis beside their purling streams and
flowery meads, with nymphs and satyrs caracoling about them.

VIII

It is probable that the polite reader of this veracious narrative,
instead of considering it as the effort of the author to set before him
a sober and well-digested history, has been all this while amusing
himself by regarding it only as a fanciful tale designed for his
entertainment. If this be so, the writer may hardly hope to convince
him that what is to follow is a serious narrative of that which, though
never so ingenuous in its recapitulation, is an altogether inexplicable
phenomenon. Accordingly, it is with extraordinary hesitation that the
scribe now invites the confidence of his reader in the succinct truth
of that which he has to relate. It is in brief as follows:

That upon the last night of this part of his voyage, Barnaby True was
awakened from slumber by flashes of lightning shining into his cabin,
and by the loud pealing of approaching thunder. At the same time
observing the sound of footsteps moving back and forth as in great
agitation overhead, and the loud shouting of orders, he became aware
that a violent squall of wind must be approaching the vessel. Being
convinced of this he arose from his berth, dressed quickly, and hurried
upon deck, where he found a great confusion of men running hither and
thither and scrambling up and down the rigging like monkeys, while the
Captain, and one whom he had come to know as the Captain's mate, were
shouting out orders in a strange foreign jargon.

A storm was indeed approaching with great rapidity, a prodigious circle
of rain and clouds whirling overhead like smoke, while the lightning,
every now and then, flashed with intense brightness, followed by loud
peals of thunder.

By these flashes of lightning Barnaby observed that they had made land
during the night, for in the sudden glare of bright light he beheld a
mountainous headland and a long strip of sandy beach standing out
against the blackne