off, however, in
the right direction, when the topsail was backed, and we lay motionless
on the half stagnant water waiting for the return of the boats.

We had not very long to wait. A loud, confused shouting, intermingled
with a ringing British cheer from our own lads now and then, accompanied
by the clash of steel and the popping of pistols, told us, whilst we
were manoeuvring the schooner, that the boats' crews had effected a
landing; and about ten minutes later Courtenay's boat reappeared,
emerging from among the mangroves with another boat in tow, which, being
captured from the enemy, was stove and sunk directly she was brought
alongside the schooner. Fidd's boat followed almost immediately
afterwards; and I then had the gratification of learning that both
batteries had been captured, the guns spiked and capsized into the mud,
and the men who manned them driven off into the swamps, where they were
perfectly powerless to work us further harm, for some time to come at
all events, in consequence of the destruction of the boat, which
constituted their only means of escape from the situation they then
occupied. And this, too, without injury to a man on our side, though
the pirates had suffered pretty severely.

This was eminently satisfactory. There was now nothing to prevent the
removal by us of the chain which barred our passage up the lagoon; but I
had a shrewd suspicion that other snares and pitfalls had been prepared
for us further on, and I had made up my mind to see if these could not
be evaded by passing out of the lagoons and making our way to the
westward, close along the northern shore of the chain of islands which
formed them. I thought it quite possible that a navigable channel for
the schooner might be found somewhere between these islands, giving
access to the lagoons so near their head as to be beyond the range of
whatever other barriers to our upward progress might have been prepared;
and, if we failed in this, I felt confident that we should at least be
able to push through with our boats. As soon, therefore, as the boats
had been hoisted up, we filled on the schooner and made the best of our
way back again.

I judged that it would take us a full hour or more to reach the spot
which I had in my mind's eye; advantage was therefore taken of this
brief period of peace and quietness to let the men get their dinners,
with a glass of grog afterwards. They were thus rested, refreshed, and
ready to