might have suspected her character before she
got up to them? Still, I had the wisdom to keep these thoughts to
myself.

The captains decided on sailing first for the Galapagos, and then to the
Marquesas and Sandwich Islands, calling off all intermediate islands.
They hoped, also, to fall in with other whalers from whom information
might be obtained. Scarcely had we got out of the bay than the wind
headed us, and we were making a long board to the southward, when the
sound of a gun was heard. It was followed by several others in quick
succession. The reports evidently came from the direction in which we
were sailing. Instead of tacking, as the captain had intended to do, he
stood on. I went aloft with a glass, and in a short time I saw two
vessels standing off from the land on the opposite tack to that we were
holding. The leading vessel was a schooner, the other a large ship,
which was firing her bow-chasers at her. I could see the puffs of smoke
issuing from the bows of the ship before I heard the reports. Every now
and then the chase fired a stern-gun, for the purpose, I guessed, of
trying to knock away some of her pursuer's spars, though from the
distance they were apart it seemed to me with very little chance of
success. The schooner showed no colours, but presently I saw a flag fly
out from the peak of the ship, which, though indistinct, I was nearly
sure was that of the Peruvian Republic. That the schooner was the
dreaded craft which had so long haunted my imagination I felt perfectly
certain, as I was that her piratical character was known, and that the
man-of-war was intent on her capture. Still, there seemed a possibility
of her escaping should her pursuer not succeed in winging her. We
might, however, cut her off, and prevent her from getting away. I
watched the two vessels for a few minutes longer, and then hurried down
on deck to tell Captain Hake what I had seen, and to suggest to him that
we might enable the man-of-war to capture the schooner.

"What business have we to interfere with the quarrels of foreigners?" he
remarked. "The chase is probably a smuggler, which has been trying to
land her cargo on the coast, or it may be has some refugees on board
belonging to one of the many parties who are always at loggerheads."

"But, sir, I am morally certain that she is the schooner we saw off the
Galapagos, to which those ruffians who attacked us belonged," I
exclaimed. "Perhaps she has been