avanese, put his head down the skylight and said
some words in his native tongue, which made the Dutchmen start from
their seats, and, seizing their pistols and swords, rush on deck. I had
no difficulty, when I followed them, in interpreting what had been said.
The pirate prahus were close upon us.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

MUTINY ON BOARD THE "BARBARA."

We have learned from the sad experience of centuries that nominal
Christianity, which men call religion, is utterly powerless to stop
warfare; it may, in a few instances, have lessened some of its horrors,
but only a few. The annals of the wars which have taken place for the
last three hundred years since the world has improved in civilisation,
show that nations rush into war as eagerly as ever, and that cruelties
and abominations of all sorts, such as the fiercest savages cannot
surpass, are committed by men who profess to be Christians. Read the
accounts of the wars of the Duke of Alva and his successors in the
Netherlands, the civil wars of France, the foreign wars of Napoleon, the
deeds of horror done at the storming and capture of towns during the war
in the Peninsula, not only by Frenchmen and Spaniards, but by the
British soldiers, and indeed the accounts of all the wars in the pages
of history, and we shall learn what a fearful and dreadful thing war is,
and strive to assist the spread of the true principles of the Gospel as
the only means of putting a stop to it.

Such thoughts as these had been occupying my mind on board the brig, on
the morning of that eventful day of which I have just been speaking.
Here was I, a peace-loving man, engaged in a peaceable occupation, and
yet finding myself continually in the midst of fighting, and now there
was every probability of my having to engage in a desperate battle, the
termination of which it was impossible to foretell. As I reached the
deck I could see a number of dark phantom-looking objects gliding slowly
over the water towards us almost noiselessly, the only sound heard being
that produced by their oars as they dipped into the water. The pirates,
for such we were still certain they must be, expected, perhaps, to find
us asleep. The guns were loaded and run out as before. The men stood
with their muskets in their hands, and pikes and cutlasses ready for
use. The strangers drew closer and closer. They still hoped, we
concluded, to catch us unprepared. We, however, did not wish to begin
the combat unless