not what mission she was on I shirked to give my
real name and station. The chance was desperate, yet not one whit more
desperate than I.

The Seamew sailed more than three weeks behind le Dauphin, armed with
letters of marque from the King commissioning her to prey upon Spanish
commerce in southern seas, and especially to take part in any
expedition against Havana or Pensacola.

Our voyage wore on drearily enough to me, almost without incident.
After four weeks of sky and sea we rounded the southernmost cape of
Florida and turned into the Mexican Gulf. I grew more and more
impatient and full of dread. Le Dauphin had twenty-three days the
start of our faster vessel, and Biloxi was probably at that moment in a
fever of warlike preparation. It was just possible, too, that the
Spaniards had not yet been informed of the war, and nothing had been so
far done by them.

Cruising by Pensacola harbor, just outside the Isle de Santa Rosa, a
pine-grown stretch of narrow sand which for twenty-five leagues
protects that coast, Levasseur called me to him.

"Do you know, my lad, what vessels those are at anchor in the harbor?"

Two of them I recognized as I would my own tent, two French men-of-war
which Bienville had long been expecting from France. The rest were
Spaniards, full-rigged, four ships, and six gunboats. Levasseur put
the Seamew boldly about and entered the harbor. He signaled the
Frenchmen, lowered a boat, and sent his lieutenant aboard the flagship
with credentials and a letter signifying his readiness to engage in any
enterprise.

From Admiral Champmeslin, in command of the squadron, he learned that
Bienville and Serigny, combined with the Choctaws, had invested
Pensacola by land, and on the morrow a simultaneous attack by land and
sea would be made. The Spanish forces consisted of four ships, six
gunboats, a strong fort on Santa Rosa Island, and the works at
Pensacola, the strength of whose garrison was unknown.

That night on board the Seamew was spent in busy preparation and in
rest. I alone was unemployed, my awkwardness with ropes and spars
forbade it. I sat moodily upon a gun at the port, and fixing my eyes
on shore vainly endeavored to make out what the French and Choctaws
were doing there. To the left were the meager camp fires of the
Indians; further up the hills a more generous blazing line marked the
French position.

Gradually a low wavering sound separated itself from the other noises