parent that we were gaining upon the brig--weathering
and fore-reaching upon her at the same time; and as it was now broad
daylight, I sent the men to quarters, hoisted our colours, and fired a
shotted gun to windward as an invitation to her to heave-to; but of this
she took no notice whatever. By nine o'clock--at which hour I took an
observation of the sun for my longitude--we had fore-reached upon the
brig sufficiently to bring her a couple of points abaft our weather
beam, and then, in accordance with the rule for chasing, we tacked
again; whereupon she did the same, thus bringing us right astern and
slightly to windward of her. It was now a stern-chase, she being as
nearly as possible seven miles ahead of us. The wind held steady, and
hour after hour the two craft went plunging along at racing speed, the
brigantine gaining steadily all the time, until by one o'clock the chase
was within range, and we opened fire upon her with our long eighteen-
pounder. Our shot flew close to her on either side,--as we could see by
the jets of water thrown up,--but it was fully half an hour before we
hit her, which we then did fair in the centre of her stern. She
immediately shot into the wind, all aback, and it took them fully five
minutes to box her off again, when--seeing, I suppose, that they could
not now possibly escape us--her people clewed up her courses, hauled
down topgallant sails and staysails, until they had reduced their canvas
to what it had been when we first sighted her, hoisted French colours,
and bore up for us.

It was at this time that we first made out the upper canvas of another
vessel just appearing above the horizon in the northern board, and
evidently steering in our direction; and upon sending aloft one of the
midshipmen who were acting as my lieutenants, he reported her as a craft
of apparently about our own size. The fact that she was heading
_toward_ us led me to the conclusion that she must be either a privateer
or a small cruiser like ourselves,--evidently attracted by the sound of
our guns,--and as I did not wish for her assistance, if a friend, or the
additional anxiety of having to fight her at the same time as the brig,
if an enemy, I called the hands aft and made them a brief speech,
impressing upon them the importance of settling the brig's business as
promptly as possible, in order that we might be free to give the other
stranger our undivided attention, if necessary. They answered with a