of the island demanded it.

"You must understand, my friends, that, if the brig we have heard of,
is, as I have every reason to believe, a British man-of-war, her purpose
is either to watch for our _Sea Hawk_, and to attack her the next time
she goes out of harbour, or to destroy our strongholds on shore. How,
though, in the latter point, I do not think she would have any chance of
success, we should find her a remarkably disagreeable antagonist to the
brig; in fact, to confess the truth, it would be wiser to run away than
to fight her. Those English are determined fellows; they will tight as
long as their own ship is afloat; and, on your decks afterwards, if they
can manage to get there. Now, if I find that my suspicions are
correct--and I shall venture on board even to ascertain their purpose--
my proposal is, that we treat the enemy as we treated the Turks; we will
watch our opportunity; and, during some dark night, we will let a
fire-ship float down across their bows when they are not dreaming of any
such thing--and we will blow them all up together. We must be near to
knock on the head any stragglers, who are not killed at once by the
explosion; and then, as no one will survive to say how the accident
happened, it will be supposed her magazine caught fire; and we shall
escape all suspicion."

This speech which was made in choice Romaic--and which, doubtless,
sounded much more heroic and elegant in that idiom than in simple
English, was highly applauded by his followers--indeed, had they ever
heard of Homer, they would have considered it equal in substance and
talent to anything ever uttered by the most valiant of the heroes he
speaks of. It was scarcely concluded, however--and they were still
discussing the subject, when the man at the helm, who had kept his eye
to windward, exclaimed that he saw a black cloud to the south-east,
which he was certain betokened a sudden storm, and would advise the
postponement of all discussions till they got safely into port. He was
an old Levant mariner, who, unlike his race in general, was rather
fonder of action than words; and, though he had no objection to cut a
throat, or plunder a ship, he did not approve of talking about it.
Though he was a sulky old rascal, Zappa had great confidence in his
sagacity, and accordingly turned his eye in the direction to which he
pointed. He there saw, too certainly, a mass of black clouds which had,
by this time collected, and which,