t to be able to
do good work with such a fine vessel as that under his feet. There she
comes round. Very pretty! very pretty indeed! Why, she works like a
top! And look at the beam of her, and the height and spread of her
spars! Upon my word it seems a pity to knock about such a beauty as
that with shot! I suppose it will be impossible to avoid doing her some
damage, but we must knock her about as little as possible. I tell you
what, George, I believe our best plan will be to make short work of her.
If we play the game of `hammer and tongs' we shall maul each other
fearfully before we compel her to haul down her colours; so let the men
clap a charge of grape and canister in on top of their round shot. We
will run her aboard at once, firing as we touch; board in the smoke, and
drive her people below, out of hand."

This was quite in accordance with my own fancy, for, as the skipper had
said, the brigantine was half as big again as the _Dolphin_; she mounted
fourteen guns to our eleven, and the chances were that, in a fair stand-
up fight, she might disable us to such an extent as to render her own
escape and that of her prize an easy matter. So I went round the decks
and personally saw to the execution of the skipper's orders, explaining
to the men his intentions, warning them not to fire until they got the
word, and cautioning all hands to be ready to follow the skipper and
myself on to the brigantine's decks the instant that the two vessels
were properly secured to each other.

The brigantine had gone about while the skipper was speaking to me, and
was now on our port bow, standing toward us on the starboard tack, and,
with the exception of our own gun of defiance, neither vessel had as yet
fired. It looked almost as if she were waiting for us to begin, in
order that she might ascertain our weight of metal; but when the two
craft were within about a quarter of a mile of each other our antagonist
suddenly yawed and gave us her whole starboard broadside of seven
twelve-pound shot. The guns were excellently aimed, the seven shot
flying close over our heads and passing through our sails. But the
seven perforations in our canvas represented the full extent of the
damage, not one of our spars being hit, or so much as a rope-yarn cut.
I could see that our lads' fingers were itching to return the fire, the
captains of the guns squinting along the sights of their pieces and
audibly remarking that the elevation was