tacked again, this time directly in our wake, I had no further doubt
about it. At this time he was about eight miles astern of us, and at
midnight he ranged up on our weather quarter, slapped his broadside of
seven 18-pound shot right into us without a word of warning, and ordered
us to at once heave-to. My owners had unfortunately sent me to sea with
only half a dozen muskets on board, and not an ounce of powder or shot;
so what could I do? Nothing, of course, but heave-to as I was bid; and
we accordingly backed the main topsail without a moment's delay. The
brig then did the same, and lowered a boat, which five minutes later
dashed alongside us and threw in upon our decks a crew of seventeen as
bloodthirsty-looking ruffians as one need ever wish to see. We were,
all hands fore and aft, at once bound neck and heels and huddled
together aft on the monkey-poop, with two of the pirates mounting guard
over us, and then the rest of the gang coolly set to work and ransacked
the ship. The fellow in command of the party--a man about five feet six
inches in height, square built, with deeply bronzed features and black
hair and beard--made it his first business to hunt for the manifest; and
having ascertained from it that we had amongst the cargo several bolts
of canvas, a large quantity of new rope, four cases of watches and
jewellery, and a dozen cases of beads, he first ordered me, in broken
English, to inform him where these articles were stowed, and then had
the hatches stripped off and the cargo roused on deck until he could get
at them. When the beads, rope, canvas, and other matters that he took a
fancy to, amounting to six boat loads, had been transferred to the brig,
he informed me that I must point out to him the spot where I had
concealed the money which he knew to be on board. Now it so happened
that I had _no_ money on board; my owners are dreadfully suspicious
people, and will not intrust _anybody_ with a shilling more than they
can help--and many a good fifty-pound note has missed its way into their
pockets through their over-cautiousness; but that's neither here nor
there. Well, I told the fellow we had no money on board, whereupon he
whipped out his watch and told me out loud, so that all hands could
hear, that he would give us five minutes in which to make up our minds
whether we would hand over the cash or not; and if we decided _not_ to
do so he would at the end of that time set fire to the ship and le