d her,
and made out that her crew were busily engaged in tricing up boarding
nettings, and otherwise making preparations for her defence.

Ryan now ordered our ensign and pennant to be hoisted, thus boldly
announcing at once our nationality and the fact of our being an enemy--
an announcement which I should have deemed it perfectly justifiable to
defer until the last possible moment--and the schooner at once replied
by hoisting French colours and firing a gun of defiance. This greatly
amused our people, to whom the act seemed a piece of ridiculous
braggadocio--for the stranger was no bigger than ourselves--but the
laugh left their faces and was succeeded by a look of grim resolution
when presently we opened out another and a larger schooner and a heavy,
handsome brigantine, the first flying Spanish colours and the brigantine
_a black flag_! But this was not all, for before we arrived abreast the
beach we had opened out still another schooner with the Spanish flag
floating from her mast-head; and by what we saw going on board the four
craft it became evident that we had by no means caught these bold rovers
napping, and that we might confidently reckon upon meeting with a very
warm reception. Moreover, it was clear that, snug as was their place of
concealment, and unlikely as it was to be discovered save, as in our
case, by betrayal, they had left nothing to chance, but had taken every
possible precaution to insure their safety, the four craft being moored
in pairs, with springs on their cables, stern to stern right across the
stream, so that, the fair-way being very narrow, they would have to be
fought and taken in succession, a necessity which I at once recognised,
and which, to my limited experience, seemed to militate very strongly
against our chances of success. It was, however, altogether too late
now to hesitate or alter our plans; we had plunged headlong and, as it
were, blindfold into a hornet's nest from which nothing but the coolest
courage and determination could extricate us, and, while I had long ago
completely conquered the feeling of trepidation and anxiety that almost
everybody experiences more or less when going into action for the first
time, I could not altogether suppress a doubt as to whether Ryan, in his
then very indifferent state of health, possessed quite all the coolness
and clear-headedness as well as the nerve that I anticipated would be
necessary to see us safely out of our present entangl