should otherwise have done, in the hope of crippling
our opponent before attempting to board. The stranger had evidently
many more people on board than the pirates had expected. They fought
their guns well, and bravely too; but the further off we got the less
effect had they, showing that they were handled by men without practice;
while the pirates, on the other hand, seldom missed their aim. Thus
fiercely engaged--the roar of the guns and the shrieks and cries of the
combatants breaking the silence of night, while the flashes lighted up
the darkness and revealed the hideous scene--we ran on in the same
course as at first. The effect of the pirates' practice with their guns
soon began to tell on the stranger; spar after spar was shot away, and
her lofty canvas came dropping down in torn shreds on deck. The pirates
shouted with satisfaction and triumph as each fresh shot told on their
opponent. We consequently had to shorten sail to keep abreast of her.
Still, her shot sometimes searched out a pirate as he laboured at his
gun, and several lay writhing in agony on the deck, while the voices of
others were silenced for ever. At last down came the fore-mast of the
barque, followed by her main-topmast. She was completely in the power
of the pirates, for the schooner could sail round and round her, while
her crew were unable to fight their guns, overwhelmed as they were with
the wreck of the masts. The pirates cheered ferociously, and, keeping
away, crossed the bows of the barque and fired a broadside right into
them. Shrieks and cries arose from the deck of the stranger, but still
no signal was made that she had given in. On the contrary, as soon as
she could get the guns on the port-side to bear, she began firing away
again on us. We tacked, and once more stood towards her, so as to rake
her as we passed under her stern. For a minute there was an entire
cessation of firing; none of her guns could be brought to bear on us,
and the pirates were reserving their fire to pour it into her with more
deadly effect. Dim and indistinct, we could just make out her hull and
shattered rigging amid the gloom; and the pirates, believing that she
would quickly be in their power, were calculating on the rich booty
which would soon be theirs, when bright flames darted up from the midst
of her--a roar like the loudest thunder deafened our ears--up, up flew
spars, and rigging, and human forms, and pieces of burning plank--
illumina