re the exhibition of our burgee, because of the
eager haste with which he bore down upon us. So eager, indeed, was he,
that he carried his studding-sails just a minute or two _too_ long; a
mistake on his part, which enabled us to make a couple of short
stretches to windward and secure the weather-gage before he was ready to
round-to, although as soon as his people detected our purpose they
worked with frantic haste to shorten sail.

The pirates opened the ball by giving us their whole larboard broadside
while we were in stays, tacking toward them; but the guns were fired
hurriedly, and did us no harm, the shot flying high over us and between
our masts, without touching so much as a ropeyarn. Five minutes later
we passed close across the _Guerrilla's_ stern, making a half-board to
clear her, and delivered our larboard broadside, with the eighteen-
pounder thrown in, every shot taking effect and raking her from end to
end. Morillo was standing aft by the taffrail, and as we passed near
enough to hear the wash of the water about the pirate vessel's rudder,
he suddenly snatched up a blunderbuss, and, singling me out, fired
point-blank at me, one bullet knocking my cap off, while another lodged
in my left shoulder, a third killing the man at our wheel, close behind
me. The _Guerrilla_ immediately ported her helm, while I, springing to
our wheel, put it hard a-starboard, thus passing a second time athwart
our antagonist's stern; and again we raked her mercilessly, this time
with our starboard broadside. Keeping our wheel hard over, we swept
round until we were once more in stays, the _Guerrilla_ having tacked
toward us a minute earlier, with the evident intention of raking us in
her turn. We were just a little too quick for her, however, gathering
way so smartly that, as we neared each other, it became evident that,
unless one or the other of us tacked again, we must inevitably run foul
of each other. I had no mind for this sort of thing, however, as we
should probably hurt ourselves quite as much as our antagonist; so,
holding on until we had only just room to clear the _Guerrilla_, and
singing out for a second shot to be rammed home in the larboard guns, I
eased our helm down just at the right moment, ranging up so close to the
other brigantine that we almost grazed her side, when we exchanged
broadsides at precisely the same instant, with terrible effect on both
sides. At the same moment our topsail was thrown aback