, with some
wooden spoons in it. He placed the bowl before us, and signified that
we might eat its contents. Curiously enough, it contained the very
thing Peter had been wishing for--a stew of turtle and rice, a thing not
to be despised by hungry men. It was very good, I know. After eating
it, we went to sleep again, and for my own part I did not awake till
daylight. After some time, a bowl of a sort of porridge was brought us,
and some plantains, which, with pork, forms the common food of the
people of Cuba. Twice in the day food was brought us. It was both
abundant and good, so that we had no reason to complain of the way the
pirates treated us. The great puzzle was to discover why it was that
they were so civil. Had they kept us on bread and water, and spared our
lives, we should have had reason to be grateful; as the usual mode of
proceeding of such gentry, we understood, always was to shoot all who
would not take the oaths and join them.

We were not allowed to go out of the place, or to hold intercourse with
anybody. The only light which was let into the place came from a hole
in the roof above our heads. It was so placed that we could not manage
to climb up to it. I managed, however, to find a chink in the floor,
near the trap; and whenever I looked through it, I saw a man with a
musket standing there as a guard.

Three or four days thus passed away. We could hear nothing of the
captain, for the only person we saw was the negro, and when we asked
him, he only shook his head, and intimated that he did not understand
what we said. Mr Gale, after a time, aroused himself, and gave us
instructions in various matters; and Peter and one of the other men told
some capital stories, and we all took it by turns to sing songs. I was
not a bad hand at that, by-the-by; I had learned several as a child, and
had picked up others since then, and as my voice was a good one, my
songs were generally favourites.

The time, however, began to hang rather heavily on our hands, when one
evening a stranger made his appearance, and looking at me, said in
English, "Youngster, you are wanted." I was startled at hearing the
sound of an English voice; but I, of course, thought the captain wanted
me, so I went, very willing to accompany him. The trap was bolted
behind me. He took me to one of the largest cottages I had observed,
and entering it, pointed to a door, and told me to go in. I did so, and
there I saw seated at a