nchman
past him, and that then I should commence the action under sail, and
fight till the Arrow came up to my assistance. This being arranged, I
hastened on board of my schooner, and, keeping away four points, I
waited for the coming up of my antagonist. In half an hour we could
perceive him through the gloom, not more than a mile from us, under all
sail, standing steadily for the light which we carried at our peak.

As I had already discovered that my little schooner sailed faster than
my opponent, I allowed her to come up within a quarter of a mile of me,
when I rounded-to; and, desiring my men to aim at his rigging, so as to
dismantle him, poured in my broadside of grape and langridge, and then
shifted my helm and resumed my course, putting more sail on, so as to
increase my distance to what it was before. This manoeuvre I executed
three times with success, and I had the satisfaction of perceiving that
his foretop-mast was shot away; but when I rounded-to the fourth time,
he did the same, and we exchanged broadsides. The effect of his
superior artillery was evident, for my rigging and sails were much
damaged; happily nothing so serious as to impede our speed, and I again
put before the breeze as before, and increased my distance previous to
again rounding-to; for, as the water was very smooth, I knew that if I
was crippled she would lay me by the board immediately, and I might be
taken and hanged before the Arrow could come up to my assistance. I
therefore continued a running fight at such a distance as rendered me
less liable to suffer from his guns.

It is true that this distance made my guns even more ineffective, but I
was decoying my Frenchman off from the land, and placing the Arrow
between him and his port, so that his return would be intercepted. This
continued for about an hour, when I perceived that the Frenchman had got
up a new foretop-mast, and had set the sail upon it. He now ran out his
bow-chasers, and continued to fire upon me with them alone, not choosing
to lose ground by rounding-to, to give me a broadside; and as his
canvass was all out, and I was occasionally rounding-to to dismantle
him, we retained much the same distance from one another. At last a
shot from his bow-chaser struck off the head of my mainmast, and my gaff
came down.

This was serious. We hastened to reef the mainsail and hoist it up
again upon the remainder of the mast, but having no gaff-topsail our
speed was neces