g ship was unmistakably an Indiaman, probably a fellow-countryman; at
least so we judged by the imperfect view of his canvas which the
flickering light of the port-fire afforded us; whilst, if appearances
were to go for anything, the brigantine could be nothing else than a
French picaroon. At all events our duty was now plain enough, we ought
to investigate the affair without a moment's unnecessary delay; and I
accordingly gave orders for all hands to be immediately called, and for
the pinnace and the two gigs to be lowered and manned. This was done
with an alacrity which I venture to believe would have gratified even my
old friend the admiral himself; and in less than a quarter of an hour
from the moment of giving the order we were in the boats and well away
from the schooner. The pinnace was in charge of the boatswain; Pottle
had the command of one of the gigs; and, as there seemed to be no
prospect of any worse outcome, in the shape of weather, than a thunder-
storm, I did not hesitate to take charge of the other gig myself,
leaving Woodford in temporary command of the schooner with instructions
how to proceed in the event of a breeze springing up before we were able
to rejoin him.

The port-fire on board the Indiaman having long before burnt-out, we had
taken the precaution to provide each boat with a compass, the light of
which was most carefully-masked; but this precaution soon proved to be
unnecessary, the boats having traversed less than half the distance
between the schooner and the other two vessels when vivid sheet
lightning began to play along the south-western horizon, lighting up the
scene with its weird radiance frequently enough to enable us to steer a
perfectly straight course. The fight was still going on when we left
the schooner; but it appeared to cease soon afterwards, and we came to
the conclusion that the crew of the Indiaman had been overpowered and
the ship taken. Our chief anxiety now was lest our approach should be
discovered in time to enable the Frenchman to make preparations for
resisting our attempts to board them when we should arrive alongside;
but, fortunately for us, the chief play of the lightning was in the
quarter almost opposite that from which we were approaching, and I was
in hopes that they would be too busy just then plundering the prize to
keep a very strict lookout. In this, however, I was doomed to be
disappointed; for when we had arrived within a quarter of a mile of