's observation when we again sat
down to a fresh supply of coffee, red herrings, and biscuits.

Nothing else occurred till the 5th of December, when one of the Spanish
prisoners was found dead in his bed in the gun-room.

On the 8th we made Jamaica, but were beating away under the south-west
end of the island, till the 15th, when I carried away my
fore-topsail-yard, and had to put into Bluefields Bay to repair the
loss.

On the 16th we sailed again with the Lowestoffe. In the evening, as we
were pretty close in with the shore, the Lowestoffe signalised that a
suspicious schooner was in sight and made sail in chase. Scarcely had
we sunk her courses below the horizon when another vessel appeared from
under the land, standing towards us. She was also a schooner, and we
were not long in making up our minds that she was an enemy's privateer.
I did not fear her though. We loaded and ran out all our guns and
prepared for the encounter. I knew that my men would not yield while
the galleon kept afloat, and so I did not watch the Lowestoffe's
departure with so much anxiety as I might otherwise have done. Tom
Rockets and others were tightening in their waist-bands, fastening
handkerchiefs round their heads, feeling the edges of their cutlasses,
and making all the other usual preparations for a fight.

The stranger came on boldly towards us. I had no doubt of the character
of the schooner, but as she sailed two knots to our one there was no use
in attempting to try and escape her. It was not long before she got
within gun-shot and exhibited her true character by running up the
Spanish ensign and by firing one of her bow-chasers at us. As our guns
would not carry so far as hers I let her come on considerably nearer
before I returned the compliment. The privateer, thinking that they
were going to make an easy victory of us, fired again, but the shot, as
had the first, flew wide of us. I saw that my people were impatient to
fire in return.

"Hold fast, my lads," I cried out. "Let her come on a little nearer,
and we'll show her that she has caught a Tartar for once in a way."

I waited for another ten minutes, but as I saw the way in which the
well-armed daring little craft approached us I could not help thinking
to myself, "I wonder whether this will be another slip between the cup
and the lip." I, of course, did not show what I thought. I now judged
that we had got her well within range of all our guns. Again she