thing else.

When he had given his directions, Bigelow went alone to the point, to
meet the strangers, who had anchored their vessels, and had landed in
considerable force. On approaching the place, he found about a hundred
men ashore, all well armed, and seemingly governed by a sort of military
authority. On presenting himself before this party, Bigelow was seized,
and taken to its leader, who was a sea-faring man, by his appearance, of
a fierce aspect and most severe disposition. This man could speak no
English. Bigelow tried him in Spanish, but could get no answer out of
him in that tongue either; though he suspected that what he said was
understood. At length, one was brought forward who _could_ speak
English, and that so well as to leave little doubt in Bigelow's mind
about the stranger's being either an Englishman or an American.
Communications between the parties were commenced through this
interpreter.

Bigelow was closely questioned touching the number of people in the
different islands, the number of vessels they possessed, the present
situation and employments of those vessels, the nature of their cargoes,
the places where the property transported in the vessels was kept, and,
in short, everything that bore directly on the wealth and movable
possessions of the people. From the nature of these questions as well as
from the appearance of the strangers, Bigelow had, at once, taken up the
notion that they were pirates. In the eastern seas, piracies were often
committed on a large scale, and there was nothing violent in this
supposition. The agitated state of the world, moreover, rendered
piracies much more likely to go unpunished then than would be the case
to-day, and it was well known that several vessels often cruised
together, when engaged in these lawless pursuits, in those distant
quarters of the world. Then the men were evidently of different races,
though Bigelow was of opinion that most of them came from the East
Indies, the coasts, or the islands. The officers were mostly Europeans
by birth, or the descendants of Europeans; but two-thirds of the people
whom he saw were persons of eastern extraction; some appeared to be
Lascars, and others what sailors call Chinamen.

Bigelow was very guarded in his answers; so much so, indeed, as to give
great dissatisfaction to his interrogators. About the Peak he assumed an
air of great mystery, and said none but birds could get on it; thunder
was sometimes heard c