r some time stunned
with the violence of my fall.

On recovering sufficiently to raise myself on my elbow, I perceived that
we were already outside the coral reef and close alongside the schooner,
which was of small size and clipper-built. I had only time to observe
this much when I received a severe kick on the side from one of the men,
who ordered me, in a rough voice, to jump aboard. Rising hastily, I
clambered up the side. In a few minutes the boat was hoisted on deck,
the vessel's head put close to the wind, and the Coral Island dropped
slowly astern as we beat up against a head sea.

Immediately after coming aboard, the crew were too busily engaged in
working the ship and getting in the boat to attend to me; so I remained
leaning against the bulwarks close to the gangway, watching their
operations. I was surprised to find that there were no guns or
carronades of any kind in the vessel, which had more the appearance of a
fast-sailing trader than a pirate. But I was struck with the neatness
of everything. The brass-work of the binnacle and about the tiller, as
well as the copper belaying-pins, were as brightly polished as if they
had just come from the foundry. The decks were pure white and smooth.
The masts were clean-scraped and varnished, except at the cross-trees
and truck, which were painted black. The standing and running rigging
was in the most perfect order, and the sails white as snow. In short,
everything, from the single narrow red stripe on her low, black hull to
the trucks on her tapering masts, evinced an amount of care and strict
discipline that would have done credit to a ship of the Royal Navy.
There was nothing lumbering or unseemly about the vessel, excepting,
perhaps, a boat, which lay on the deck with its keel up between the fore
and main masts. It seemed disproportionately large for the schooner;
but when I saw that the crew amounted to between thirty and forty men, I
concluded that this boat was held in reserve in case of any accident
compelling the crew to desert the vessel.

As I have before said, the costumes of the men were similar to that of
the captain. But in head-gear they differed, not only from him, but
from each other--some wearing the ordinary straw hat of the merchant
service, while others wore cloth caps and red worsted nightcaps. I
observed that all their arms were sent below, the captain only retaining
his cutlass and a single pistol in the folds of his shawl. Al