wn. He would, of course, most
certainly be thought to be lost. His vessel would sail without him, and
report his death at home. As he was a married man, with several
children, the trial was indeed great to him.

I tried to make out who was the captain of the pirates, but they
appeared at first to me to be all equal. A fat, sturdy mulatto, was, I
after a time suspected, the chief mate, or one of the principal
officers; and the Spaniard, who had first succeeded in boarding us, was
another. Not one of them spoke a word of English, though from the first
I suspected that two or more of the white men understood it, if they
were not Englishmen or people from the American colonies. At all
events, I followed Peter's advice--not to say anything about which it
might be well not to have heard. I have often seen people get into
great scrapes, and bring most disagreeable consequences on themselves,
from disregarding that rule. Never say anything among foreigners, in
your own or any other language, which you do not wish them to
understand; or even give expression to your feelings in looks, which
even savages, you should remember, can frequently comprehend.

Our two poor shipmates who had been wounded died, I hope, before we left
the schooner. At all events, the pirates threw them overboard.
Including Peter and me, there were thus only three foremast-men, besides
the blacks, and a mulatto who had been shipped as pilot for the trip
round the coast. We all kept together sitting on and about one of the
guns; but very little conversation passed between us. The captain and
Mr Gale walked the deck near us, but they said very little to each
other. A negro brought us, towards the evening, a large dish of farina,
with some sort of meat stewed in it. Though not over pleasant to the
look, it was acceptable enough to hungry men, for we had had nothing to
eat since the morning. A more palatable-looking dish was placed before
the captain and Mr Gale. This care of us showed that they did not, at
all events, intend to starve us to death, as they would scarcely have
fed people whom they intended to kill.

I observed the Spaniard and the mulatto mate occasionally going down an
after-hatchway, which I supposed led into the chief cabin, but for what
reason they went I could not tell; and I observed that whenever the
captain and Mr Gale approached the spot, a guard stationed there turned
them back. When night came on, a sail was handed to