ermission, such may be the result. Without further preface I
shall commence with a narrative of my cruise off Hispaniola, in the
Revenge privateer.

The Revenge mounted fourteen guns, and was commanded by Captain
Weatherall, a very noted privateer's-man. One morning at daybreak we
discovered a vessel from the masthead, and immediately made all sail in
chase, crowding every stitch of canvass. As we neared, we made her out
to be a large ship, deeply laden, and we imagined that she would be an
easy prize; but as we saw her hull more out of the water, she proved to
be well armed, having a full tier of guns fore and aft. As it
afterwards proved, she was a vessel of 600 tons burden, and mounted
twenty-four guns, having sailed from Saint Domingo, and being bound to
France.

She had been chartered by a French gentleman (and a most gallant fellow
we found him), who had acquired a large fortune in the West Indies, and
was then going home, having embarked on board his whole property, as
well as his wife and his only son, a youth of about seventeen. As soon
as he discovered what we were, and the impossibility of escape from so
fast a sailing vessel as the Revenge, he resolved to fight us to the
last. Indeed he had everything to fight for; his whole property, his
wife and his only child, his own liberty, and perhaps life, were all at
stake, and he had every motive that could stimulate a man. As we
subsequently learnt, he had great difficulty in inspiring the crew with
an equal resolution, and it was not until he had engaged to pay them the
value of half the cargo, provided they succeeded in beating us off and
forcing their way in safety to France, that he could rouse them to their
duty.

Won by his example, for he told them that he did not desire any man to
do more than he would do himself, and perhaps more induced by his
generous offer, the French crew declared they would support him to the
last, went cheerfully to their guns, and prepared for action. When we
were pretty near to him, he shortened sail ready for the combat, having
tenderly forced his wife down below to await in agony the issue of a
battle on which depended everything so dear to her. The resolute
bearing of the vessel, and the cool intrepidity with which they had
hove-to to await us, made us also prepare on our side for a combat which
we knew would be severe. Although she was superior to us in guns, yet,
the Revenge being wholly fitted for war, we had ma