blow an attempted insult to his mother made by the
ruffian after all the crew and male passengers of the Indiaman had been
secured. I am not ashamed to say that on hearing this I regretted
having slain the villain, I felt that death by the sword was too good
for him, hanging in chains being more in accordance with his deserts.
And here I may state that it seemed more than probable this would be the
ultimate fate of the survivors of the brigantine's crew, for although
they claimed that the vessel was a letter of marque, no papers could be
found to substantiate that claim, although I allowed the chief officer
every facility to find and produce them--if he could.

At length, having seen all the wounded attended to and made as
comfortable as possible, and having told off a prize-crew for the
brigantine and placed Woodford in command of the Indiaman, with half a
dozen _Dolphins_ to assist her own crew in navigating the vessel, I
returned on board and had another short but pleasant interview with my
father, which was broken in upon by Woodford with the report that a
breeze was springing up. I therefore bade a hasty adieu to the
passengers, most of whom had by this time in a great measure recovered
their equanimity, and hastened on board the schooner, when the three
vessels were cast adrift, the sails trimmed to a gentle easterly breeze,
and a course shaped for Jamaica, it being my intention to escort the
prizes into port.

On the following morning, the weather being fine, I had the gig lowered
and went on board the Indiaman--which I may here mention was named the
_Truxillo_; the brigantine being named the _Clarice_--when I, for the
first time, heard an account of the circumstances attending her capture.

She hailed, it appeared, from London, from which port she had originally
sailed, having on board twenty-two adult passengers, with five children;
specie amounting to one hundred and fifty thousand pounds, and a very
valuable general cargo, all for Kingston. She had joined a convoy at
Plymouth, and had sailed with it, all going well with the fleet until
they reached the neighbourhood of latitude 25 degrees North and
longitude 50 degrees West, when a hurricane was encountered which
completely scattered the convoy, and compelled the _Truxillo_ to run to
the southward for three days under bare poles. It was, of course,
almost hopeless to think of falling in with the fleet again after the
hurricane had blown itself out--the