he remaining length of hull with the towering mainmast supporting a
mainsail as handsomely cut and setting as flat as that of a yacht.

She was a most beautiful vessel, sitting very low in the water, and
therefore, perhaps, looking even longer than she actually was. She was
broadside-on to me, so I could not see what amount of beam she showed;
consequently it was a little difficult to estimate her size, but,
judging from her general appearance, I put it down at about two hundred
and twenty tons. She was painted a brilliant grass green from her rail
to her copper, and showed four ports of a side, out of which peered the
muzzles of certain brass cannon that I decided were probably long nines.

The vessel reached across the narrow channel and went in stays quite
close to the tree-clad northern shore of the lagoon--thus at once
exhibiting her own exceedingly shallow-draught of water and her
skipper's intimate knowledge of the locality--just as the barque in turn
hove in sight. This last vessel had nothing at all remarkable in her
appearance, except perhaps that her canvas was exceptionally well cut,
but she was by no means a beauty, and to the eye presented all the
characteristics of the ordinary merchantman, being painted black, with a
broad white band round her upon which were depicted ten painted ports.
But these appearances of honesty were deceptive, for despite the general
"motherliness" of her aspect she was almost as speedy a ship as the
brigantine, although she had by this time shortened down to her two
topsails and fore-topmast staysail. Also, with the aid of my telescope,
I was able to discern, above the blatant pretence of the painted ports,
six closed ports of a side, which I had no doubt concealed as many
cannon.

The brigantine, tacking as smartly and handily as a little boat, came
round and headed well up for the weathermost buoy, to which she made
fast a few minutes later, with the barque close upon her heels. Until
the latter had also made fast to a buoy--the one astern of the
brigantine--a dead silence reigned over the settlement, broken only by
the shouts of the people on board the two new arrivals as they went
noisily about their work of clewing up, hauling down, and furling their
canvas; but the moment that the barque was fast to her buoy and the men
who had bent the cable to the buoy had returned on board, there arose a
sudden rattle and splash of oars, and our concealed boats swept out from
the