of the Spanish settlements from Panama to Valdivia. Sailing
under French colours, and professing to be a privateer, she had actually
attacked a French merchant brig within fifty miles of Coquimbo Roads,
the captain and the crew of which were slaughtered and the vessel
plundered and then burnt. Since then she had been seen by several
vessels in the Paumoto archipelago, where her crew had been guilty of
the most fearful crimes, perpetrated on the natives.

"My husband thanked Freeman for his information; but said that if the
pirate vessel came into Tubuai Lagoon she would never get out again,
except under British colours. This was no idle boast, for not only
were my husband's two vessels--which were then both at anchor in the
lagoon--well armed, but they were manned by English or English-blooded
half-caste seamen, who would have only been too delighted to fight a
Frenchman, or a Spaniard, or a Dutchman.

"Ah, 'tis so long ago, but what brave, rough fellows they were! Some
of them, we well knew, had been transported as convicts, and were, when
opportunity offered, drunken and dissolute, but to my husband and myself
they were good and loyal men. Two of them had seen Trafalgar day in the
_Royal Sovereign_ under Collingwood when that ship had closed with the
_Santa Anna_ and made her strike. Their names--as given to us--were
James Watts and Thomas Godwin. After the fleet returned to England
they got into mischief, and were transported for being concerned in a
smuggling transaction at Deal, in Kent, in which a preventive officer
was either killed or seriously wounded--I forget which. Their exemplary
conduct, however, had gained them a remission of their sentences, and
the Governor of New South Wales, who was most anxious to open up the
South Sea Island trade, had recommended them to my husband as good men,
Godwin having been brought up to the boatbuilding trade at Lowestoft in
England, and Watts as a gunsmith.

"About ten days after the visit of the _Chalice_ my husband left in one
of his vessels for Vavitao--only a day's sail from here. He wanted me
to go with him, but I was too much interested in a large box of English
seeds, and some young fruit trees which the Governor of New South Wales
had sent to us, and so I said I would stay and watch our garden, in
which I took a great pride. He laughed and said that I must not forget
to look out for 'Freeman's pirate' as well as for my garden. He never
for one moment imagined that