f who had
captured and plundered a ship, and advised the men to hang each other,
being affected in precisely the opposite manner from Scudamore, who,
under the influence of the wine, believed himself an honest man who had
been taken prisoner by bandits; the result of which was that the two men
had a violent scuffle, and as the captain proved to be the stronger,
Scudamore lost two of his teeth.

The former then triumphantly resumed his seat among the pirates, and by
singing several songs aloud, roused their enthusiasm to such a pitch
that Skyrme, starting up, vowed by a sea of wine to drink the Bristol
captain's health in a glass which no man had ever used.

He kept his word, for, ordering a cask filled with Malvoisie to be
rolled up, he knocked out the head, sprang into it, and there drank the
health of the captain, who almost died with laughter, thinking it vastly
entertaining that a man should sit in the vessel from which he drank
without being afraid of swallowing himself.

* * * * *

The carouse on the captured ship lasted uninterruptedly for three days
and nights. On the third day the intoxicated pirates embraced the
drunken captain and, rolling a few casks of wine upon their own sloop as
a remembrance, took leave, urging him, when he reached Barbadoes, to
send them a few rich merchantmen, of which just now they were in great
need. Before he arrived there, however, the captain had entirely
recovered from his intoxication and, remembering, doubtless, his
slaughtered fowl and plundered wine, resolved to send a few ships in
pursuit of the pirates.

He went to the governor, related his misfortune, and induced him, in the
absence of men-of-war, to fit up a merchant vessel with twenty-four guns
and a sloop with ten, and despatch them under the command of Captains
Rogers and Graves in chase of the bold buccaneers who roved so daringly
in waters so near port. The latter were not yet sober, for they still
had their wine, and when they saw the approaching vessels, believing
that they would prove rich prizes, tacked and stood toward them.

The ship and sloop allowed them to come close, without answering the
pirates' first fire.

This made the latter still bolder and, shouting to them to haul down
their flags and surrender, they steered directly toward them.

But, at the instant they seized their grappling irons to throw on the
ship, her guns suddenly thundered a warning and, instead of