an," said I to the seaman who stood over us with a pistol
and a cutlass, "who are you, and what are you? Tell us the truth: are
you pirates?"

"I never was yet," replied he, "nor do I mean to be; but our skipper
says that you are, and that he knew you as soon as you came alongside.
That's all I can say about it."

"Why, if we are pirates, as he says, and he recognises us, he must have
been in pirates' company,--that is clear."

"Well, he may have been, for all I know," replied the man. "I don't
consider him any very great things; but he is our captain, and we must
obey orders."

The man now brought forward the other three men who had been left in the
boat. They told us that the boat had been cleared; all the provisions,
stores, sails, etcetera, had been taken out of her;--a proof that she
had been gutted and then cut adrift;--that all our bundles were down in
the captain's cabin, and that the ill-looking urchin, his son, had
overhauled them, one after another, and handed to his father all the
money that he had found; that they had been searched very carefully; and
that they had heard the captain say that we were all to be sent up, one
by one, and searched in the same manner;--and so it proved. I was first
taken aft to have my pockets rummaged by the little villain, and as soon
as I had been led forward and again put into irons, the Portuguese
captain and three other seamen were sent for and treated in the same
way. We inquired of the men what money they had in their bundles and
about their persons. They had each man four doubloons at Rio for wages,
and the captain had about forty doubloons. I had five hundred
pieces-of-eight: so that, altogether, we had been robbed to the tune of
about four hundred pounds sterling, independent of our clothes, which
were of some value to us; that is, mine were at all events.

The seamen who guarded us, and who relieved each other every watch, were
not at all surly or ill-natured. I asked one of them during the
night-watch whether he thought the captain would take our lives.

"No," said he; "we will not allow that. You may be pirates, as he says,
although we do not think you are; but if pirates, you shall have fair
play; that we have all made up our minds to. No hanging first, and
trying afterwards."

I had a long conversation with this man, who appeared very much inclined
to be sociable. He told me that the vessel was named the
_Transcendant_; that she sailed from Virg