f an
inlet in an island we were passing some three miles on the weather bow.

"The captain was soon on deck with his glass, and no sooner did he make
them out than he gave orders to clap every sail on her. We hadn't a very
smart crew, but there are not many British ships ever made sail faster
than we did then. The men just flew about, for it needed no glass to
show that the two vessels which came creeping out from among trees
weren't customers as one wanted to talk to on the high seas. The one
was a brig, the other a schooner. They carried lofty spars ever so much
higher than an honest trader could want; and quick as we had got up our
sails, they had got their canvas spread as soon as we had.

"The ship was a fast sailer, but it didn't need half an hour to show
that they had the legs of us. So the skipper called the crew aft. 'Now,
my lads,' he said, 'you see those two vessels astern. I don't think it
needs any telling from me as to what they are. They might be Spaniards
or they might be French, or they might be native traders, but we are
pretty well sure they ain't anything of the kind. They are pirates--I
guess the same two vessels I heard them talking about down at Rio. They
have been doing no end of damage there. There were pretty nigh a dozen
ships missing, and they put them all down to them. However, a couple of
English frigates had come into Rio, and hearing what had happened had
gone out to chase them. They hadn't caught them, and the Brazilians
thought that they had shifted their quarters and gone for a cruise in
other latitudes.

"'The description they gave of them answered to these two--a brig and a
schooner, with low hulls and tall spars. One of them carries ten guns,
the other two on each side, and a heavy piece mounted on a swivel
amidship. It was said that before they went down to Brazil they had been
carrying on their games among the West India Islands, and had made it so
hot for themselves that they had been obliged to move off from there.
It was like enough that, now the hue and cry after them had abated, they
would return to their old quarters.

"'Well, my lads, I needn't tell you what we have to expect if they take
us. Every man Jack will either get his throat cut or be forced to walk
the plank. So we will fight her to the last; for if the worst comes
to the worst, it's better to be killed fighting like men than to be
murdered in cold blood. However, I hope it won't come to that. We carry
twelve