n a
tough pull to come up with her. Another reason for her so doing was
soon apparent, by her opening a fire of two swivel guns over her
counter, which her crew probably calculated would check the advance of
the boats. It is extraordinary at what speed the Greek misticos can be
urged through the water; and on this occasion the _Zoe_ did full justice
to her character, for her crew were strong, fresh, and in high spirits,
while, on the other hand, the British seamen had been rowing all night,
and the greater part of the day, and were dispirited by the loss of
their officer and the ill success of the expedition; not, however, that
this prevented them from exerting themselves to the very utmost of their
strength. The wind also, which had been very uncertain and changeable,
now almost a calm, now a fresh breeze, now blowing from the eastward,
now some points to the north of it, then a like number to the south,
seemed suddenly to fix itself in the latter point with a considerable
increase of strength, which sent the mistico flying through the water at
a greater speed than ever.

"Give way, my men, oh, give way!" shouted Tompion, scarcely able to
articulate in his eagerness to overtake the enemy, for with the increase
of the breeze he saw their chance of doing so gradually fading away, and
the proud hopes he had begun to form, of revenging the loss they had
sustained, and of being able to carry with him his first prize as a
proof of what they had done, with a vista of honour and promotion in the
distance, cruelly dissipated. Again the British seamen cheered, and
stretched their arms till their oars bent and cracked, but the sound was
answered by shouts of derisive laughter from the Greeks, and a discharge
from their swivel guns with several rounds from their musketry, though
happily without doing much damage. Both boats were struck over and over
again, and one man was wounded, but not sufficiently to disable him.

The cutter returned it with a bow-chaser, and to some purpose, it
seemed, by the cries and shrieks which followed.

"Give it them again!" shouted Tompion. "If they do get away, they shall
have cause to remember us. Fire, my men, fire!"

Again the shot told with fearful effect among the crowded crew of the
_Zoe_; and from the cries and confusion on board they had reason to hope
that some of those working her sweeps were disabled; and as the firing
ceased, that those who had worked the guns had taken their pl