possibility of
coming off victorious. If he did run, it would only be to induce the
enemy to follow. The decks were cleared for action. Slowly we closed,
when at length the strangers began to signalise, and we discovered that
they formed the squadron of Captain Brisbane, who directed Captain
Collyer to join him; except that, in case of parting company, we were
ordered to rendezvous at Aruba, a small island about twenty leagues to
the westward of Curacoa, we remained in ignorance of what was about to
be done, though that there was something in the wind we had little
doubt. Various opinions were expressed; some thought that as the Dutch
had chosen to follow Napoleon's advice, and go to war with us, we should
attack the island of Curacoa itself, to show them that they had better
have remained at peace; but the general idea was, that, as it was
strongly fortified, we should not make such an attempt without large
reinforcements. We did not know then what sort of stuff the commodore
was made of.

On the evening of the 22nd of December, we anchored at the west end of
Aruba, and we soon learned that Captain Brisbane had not only resolved
to attack Curacoa, but that he had a first-rate plan, all cut and dry,
just suited to the tastes of British seamen. He had learned that the
Dutch had a custom of finishing the old year by getting very tipsy; high
and low, old and young, men and women, all imbibed as large an amount of
schiedam as they could manage to stow away. Even ladies, young and
fair, went about the streets offering glasses of the attractive liquor
to their acquaintance and friends, and it would have been a positive
insult to have refused it from their hands. The consequence was that
the inhabitants, military and civil, had no inclination to get up in the
morning, and even guards and look-out men were apt to go to sleep at
their posts. Captain Brisbane formed his plans accordingly, and fixed
daybreak on January the 1st as the moment for attack. We sailed again
on the 24th, and had a long beat up against the trades towards the east
end of Curacoa. Our time, however, was busily employed in making
scaling ladders, sharpening cutlasses, and manufacturing every bit of
red cloth or stuff we could find into soldiers' coats, as also in
arranging other badges, by which each ship's company could be easily
distinguished. Each crew was thus divided into storming parties, under
the lieutenants and senior mates, the captain