a circumstance that I
regret not a little, as it deprives me of my only chance for describing
a storm at sea. They only experienced one tornado, and fifteen gales of
wind, before joining the other ship. The tornado was no great things
after all--the brig ran merrily before it, under a reefed foresail and
close-reefed main-topsail. The crew were all on deck during the whole
night it lasted, in case of their services being required. But the
females below had by far the worst of it--they were "turned in" to
berths that the ship-joiner had built with reference rather to the
accommodation of an able-bodied man, than a delicate young lady; and in
consequence, poor Julia was dashed first against the vessel's side, and
then against the front berth-board, as the brig rolled gunwales under at
every motion, till she began to think with the Frenchman, that she
"should get some sleeps, no, not never." In this dilemma she thought of
taking her maid, Miss Dorothea Hastings, into the berth with her, where
the two females, operating mutually as "checks" to each other,
eventually made out a very passable night's rest. As for the gales of
wind, they were the merest flea-bites in creation, though one of them
borrowed the brig's fore-topmast, and another walked away with her
jib-boom.

During this period, Benavidas had been taken a second time; and as his
captors did not choose to risk shooting him again, which they had
already practised upon him once without success, they hanged him. His
gang were nearly all killed or taken at the same time, and the prisoners
summarily dealt with.

Longford and about thirty more made their escape in a small schooner;
and as they well knew that they would experience no other mercy, if
taken, than a high gallows and short halter, they shaped a course for
the island of Masafuero, which they determined to make their
head-quarters, and to commit depredations upon all vessels that passed
which were not too well armed. They effected a landing with some
difficulty, and found, as they expected, considerable quantities of
provisions and stores, that had been deposited among the deep fissures
of the rocks by Benavidas some time previous, when his affairs on the
continent began to assume a smoky appearance. Here the scattered but
desperate remnant of his lawless followers found a temporary respite
from the harassing pursuit of the Chilenos, that resulted every day in
the capture and immediate execution of some of t