tter opportunity of
understanding the nature of the danger which so imminently pressed upon
the brigantine. With a single glance at the symmetrical spars and broad
yards of the ship that was sweeping past the town, he knew her to be the
Coquette. The little flag at her fore-top-gallant mast sufficiently
explained the meaning of the gun; for the two, in conjunction with the
direction the ship was steering, told him, in language that any seaman
could comprehend, that she demanded a Hell-Gate pilot. By the time the
Skimmer reached the end of a lone wharf, where a light and swift-rowing
boat awaited his return, the second report bespoke the impatience of his
pursuers to be furnished with the necessary guide.

Though the navigation in this Republic, coastwise, now employs a tonnage
equalling that used in all the commerce of any other nation of
Christendom, England alone excepted, it was of no great amount at the
commencement of the eighteenth century. A single ship, lying at the
wharves, and two or three brigs and schooners at anchor in the rivers,
composed the whole show of sea vessels then in port. To these were to be
added some twenty smaller coasters and river-craft, most of whom were the
shapeless and slow-moving masses which then plied, in voyages of a month's
duration, between the two principal towns of the colony. The appeal of the
Coquette, therefore, at that hour and in that age, was not likely to be
quickly answered.

The ship had got fairly into the arm of the sea which separates the island
of Manhattan from that of Nassau, and though it was not then, as now,
narrowed by artificial means, its tide was so strong as, aided by the
breeze, to float her swiftly onward. A third gun shook the windows of the
city, causing many a worthy burgher to thrust his head through his
casement; and yet no boat, was seen pulling from the land, nor was there
any other visible sign that the signal would be speedily obeyed. Still the
royal cruiser stood steadily on, with sail packed above sail, and every
sheet of canvas spread, that the direction of a wind, which blew a little
forward of the beam, would allow.

"We must pull for our own safety, and that of the brigantine, my men;"
said the Skimmer, springing into his boat and seizing the tiller--"A quick
stroke, and a strong!--here is no time for holiday feathering, or your
man-of-war jerk! Give way, boys; give way, with a will, and together!"

These were sounds that had often salut