om the Imperial service, had
landed them somewhere in the Straits, taken all their dollars, sold the
cargo to the Dutch military authorities, and cleared out.

And then with a new ship, a new crew--many of whom were Hayes's and
Peese's former Chinese naval service pirates--the partners sailed for
the Bonin Islands, where Peese was well known, and had lived before. Two
days ere making the Bonins a ship was sighted ashore on a reef. It was a
gunboat from Macao with an official on board, bound to the Bonin Islands
to investigate the murder of a Portuguese captain and mate. A boat was
lowered from the _Waterlily_, and Peese, who spoke Spanish well, learned
from the captain that the gunboat, which was then hard and fast, had run
ashore in the night and bumped a big hole in herself just amidships. For
a thousand dollars Peese agreed to stand by them and save all he could,
including her four guns. The guns were rafted to the _Waterlily_,
then the small arms and stores followed in the boats belonging to the
gunboat. At dusk Hayes went aboard the wrecked ship and took the brig's
Chinese carpenter with him. On examination he said the ship could be
got off again if she could be canted over and a sail "fothered" over the
hole temporarily. This the gunboat captain agreed to try, and signalled
for his boats to return from the _Waterlily_. After working all night
the thing was done, and the captain and officers were profuse in
their expression of admiration at Hayes's skill. As the tide fell the
carpenters got to work, and the gunboat was made watertight. Under
Hayes's direction, at flood-tide, she was then kedged over the reef into
the lagoon, and anchored in smooth water. Peese and Hayes then arranged
to bring in the _Waterlily_ at next tide, lay her alongside the gunboat,
and put the guns and stores aboard again, agreeing to take the captain's
order on Macao for 700 dollars and 800 dollars in cash. But next morning
the brig was nowhere to be seen, and although the captain had his ship
he was minus his big guns, many small arms, and stores to the value
of 2,000 or 8,000 dollars. In attempting to get under way he again ran
ashore, and remained hard and fast for a week.

Meanwhile Hayes and Peese had gone off on a southerly course to the
Pelew Group where the cannons were sold to the chiefs, and the two
captains gave a feast, and made merry generally, and got rid of nearly
all their crew, taking Pelew men and seven Japanese in their p