shipped
at the Cape, together with a number of passengers. She had here joined
the homeward-bound convoy, and all had gone well with her until the
springing up of the gale during which we had fallen in with the convoy.
During this gale, however, she had laboured so heavily that she had not
only lost her fore and mizzen-topmasts and her main-topgallant-mast, but
she had also strained so much that she had made a great deal of water,
necessitating frequent and long spells at the pumps. This, and the
clearing away of the wreck of her top-hamper, had, as might have been
expected, greatly exhausted the crew, the result being that, on the
night of her capture, the look-out was not quite so keen as perhaps it
should have been. But after all, as the captain remarked, there really
did not appear to be any necessity for the maintenance of an especially
bright look-out beyond what was required to provide against their
falling foul of any of the other ships belonging to the convoy, and
although he admitted that he had noticed both the brigantine and the
_Dolphin_, which he had immediately set down as privateers, he did not
consider them as enemies, and even if any such suspicion had entered his
mind he would not have deemed himself liable to attack within sight and
reach of eight men-o'-war. Therefore, when night came on, he allowed
his exhausted crew to get what rest they could, keeping only a
sufficient number of men on deck to meet any ordinary emergency. He was
thus profoundly astonished and chagrined at being awakened about one
o'clock in the morning to find his crew overpowered and safely confined
below, and his ship in possession of a crew of thirty Frenchmen. How
they had contrived to get on board, in the height of so heavy a gale,
and with so tremendous a sea running, he had been unable to ascertain,
the Frenchman in charge resolutely refusing to explain.

Such was the extraordinary story told by the captain of the _Manilla_;
and that it was absolutely true there could be no doubt, for we had
ourselves seen enough to assure us of that. I was greatly disappointed,
however, at the captain's inability to explain by what means the
Frenchmen had contrived to board the ship in the face of such formidable
difficulties; for that was precisely the point that had puzzled me all
through, and I resolved to find out, if I could, for such a secret was
quite worth the knowing.

Captain Winter had determined to return home with hi