his command, and he had had
to ship on the _Britannia_ as chief mate. He was, however, a great
favourite with the men, who now urged him to lead them on and avenge the
loss of the captain; so the moment the boat returned from landing Mrs.
Rossiter he slipped his cable, and stood out to meet the enemy.

"We, from the hill, watched all this with the greatest interest and
excitement, and then Ohlsen turned to the others and said, 'Let us get
back to the boat at once. The captain has got under weigh to chase those
fellows, and we should be with him.'

"So we descended to the beach, where we met the poor lady and her
children, and heard that her husband was dead. She begged Ohlsen not
to leave her, but he said his duty lay with his shipmates; then
she besought him to at least leave Robert Eury with her, as she was
terrified at the idea of having to spend the night on such a wild island
with no one but the coloured steward to protect her and her children.
At this time--although we could not see them--we knew the ships were
heavily engaged, for the roar of the cannon was continuous. So, much to
his anger, young Eury was bidden to remain with the captain's wife,
her son aged twelve, her daughter Ann, who was three years younger, the
coloured steward, and myself. Then, bidding us goodbye, Ohlsen and his
three men went off in the boat, and were soon out of sight.

"Young as he was, Robert Eury had good sense and judgment. He was angry
at Mr. Skinner venturing out to attack such well-armed vessels with
our poor 9-pounders, and although he had been most anxious to join
his shipmates, he was, he afterwards told me, pretty sure that the
_Britannia_ would have to strike or be sunk. The first thing he did,
however, was to make all of our party comfortable. At the head of the
bay there was an empty house, which had been built by the crews of the
whaleships frequenting the Galapagos as a sort of rest-house for the men
sent to catch tortoises. To this place he took us, and set the steward
to work to get us something to eat, for Mr. Skinner had sent provisions
and wine ashore. Then he took the ship's money, which amounted to about
thirteen hundred pounds, and buried it a little distance away from the
house. I helped him, and when the bags were safely covered up he turned
to me with a smile lighting up his brown face.

"'There, Molly. That's done, and if Mr. Skinner has to strike, and the
Frenchmen come here, they'll get nothing but ours