chantman."

"Is she yours, uncle?"

"No, she is not mine, and I do not exactly charter her; but she
works principally for me. You see, the wages are so low that they
can work a craft like this for next to nothing. Why, the captain
and his eight men, together, don't get higher pay than the
boatswain of an English trader.

"The captain owns the vessel. He is quite content if he gets a few
rupees a month, in addition to what he considers his own rate of
pay. His wife and his two children live on board. If the craft can
earn twenty rupees a week, he considers that he is doing
splendidly. At the outside, he would not pay his men more than four
rupees a month, each, and I suppose that he would put down his
services at eight; so that would leave him forty rupees a month as
the profit earned by the ship.

"In point of fact, I keep him going pretty steadily. He makes trips
backwards and forwards between the different depots; carries me up
the rivers for a considerable distance; does a little trade on his
own account--not in goods such as I sell, you know, but purely
native stores--takes a little freight when he can get it, and
generally a few native passengers. I pay him fifteen rupees a week,
and I suppose he earns from five to ten in addition; so that the
arrangement suits us both, admirably.

"I keep the stern cabin for myself. As you see, she has four little
brass guns, which I picked up for a song at Calcutta; and there are
twenty-four muskets aft. It is an arrangement that the crew are to
practise shooting once a week, so they have all come to be pretty
fair shots; and the captain, himself, can send a two-pound shot
from those little guns uncommonly straight.

"You will be amused when you see us practising for action. The
captain's wife and the two boys load the guns, and do it very
quickly, too. He runs round from gun to gun, takes aim, and fires.
The crew shout, and yell, and bang away with their muskets. I take
the command, and give a few pice among them, if the firing has been
accurate.

"We have been attacked, once or twice, in the upper waters; but
have always managed to beat the robbers off, without much
difficulty. The captain fires away, till they get pretty close; and
I pepper them with my rifles--I have three of them. When they get
within fifty yards, the crew open fire and, as they have three
muskets each, they can make it very hot for the pirates. I have a
store of hand grenades and, if they push on