on our sails, or possibly in the expectation of
catching sight, by means of the light, either of our boats, or a raft,
or perhaps a hen-coop and grating or two floating about as evidence of
our having gone down. However, she was about five miles distant from us
at that time, and although the light of the port-fires rendered her
perfectly visible to us, I had little or no fear that it would betray
our whereabouts to her people. She remained dodging about and
occasionally burning port-fires for fully another hour--by which time we
had sunk her to her foreyard below the horizon, as viewed from our
deck--and then, as she discontinued her pyrotechnic display, we lost
sight of her. At daybreak I sent a man right up to the main-royal-yard,
where he remained until the light was thoroughly strong, and then came
down with the report that the horizon was clear.

This was highly satisfactory, inasmuch as it confirmed my hope that if
Mendouca was still prosecuting a search for us--as I felt sure he was,
he having of course failed to discover any evidence of the ship having
foundered--he was looking for us in a northerly direction, very probably
cracking on in the belief that we had gone that way and that there was
still a chance of overtaking us.

At eight bells in the morning watch we brought the ship to the wind on
the larboard tack, with her head about east-north-east, and I then
divided my scanty crew into two watches, with Joe Maxwell, the
carpenter, as my chief mate, and a very smart A.B., named Tom Sutcliffe,
as second. This done, the watch was set, and put to the job of
straightening-up generally and pumping out the ship, this latter job
being accomplished and the pumps sucking in just under the ten minutes
that Maxwell had allowed for it. It was clear, therefore, that our hull
was sound, and that in that respect, at all events, with the best--or
rather the worst--intentions in the world, the pirates had done us
little or no harm.

Our most serious difficulty was the want of water, Mendouca having
literally cleared the ship of every drop she possessed, save some eight
or ten gallons in the scuttle-butt, which they had either overlooked, or
perhaps had considered not worth taking. But here again it appeared as
though God in His infinite mercy had taken compassion on us; for about
noon the wind died away, and I had only just time to take my meridian
observation for the latitude when the heavens clouded over, and toward