e, we hoisted Dutch colours and stood away from
them. In the evening we sighted seven more sail steering out of the
bay. On this, to deceive the enemy, we hung tarpaulins over the sides
of the ship, set the sails in lubberly fashion, and, hauling our wind,
stood away from the strangers till dark. We then again made sail and
followed them. At ten o'clock we saw two more sail, one of which fired
a gun, and the other then parted company and steered for Leogane. Soon
afterwards eight more sail were seen to leeward. We had not lost sight
of the ship which had fired a gun; though she might have suspected our
character, she did not stand away from us. We accordingly soon ran up
alongside, when Captain Forrest shouted out to him in French to strike,
adding, `If you alarm the other ships, or let them discover by any means
what we are, we'll send you forthwith to the bottom.'

"The French commander, fully believing that our captain would put his
threat into execution, immediately gave in; and one of our lieutenants,
with thirty-five men, went on board the prize with orders to proceed off
Petit Guave, a small port to leeward, to prevent any of the other
vessels from escaping into it. The vessel we had captured was the
_Mars_, of twenty-two guns and 108 men, all of whom we had now aboard
us, stowed away below lest they should be making signals to the enemy.
We stood on during the remainder of the night, and at daylight found
ourselves in the midst of the convoy, which, on our hoisting our colours
and showing what we were about, began firing at us; but we quickly
silenced them one after the other, and in the course of a few minutes
the whole struck, one small vessel alone managing to get away. There
were altogether eight vessels, richly laden, each carrying from eight to
ten guns. We had to take out their crews and man them from our ship.
The captain, sending for me, greatly to my satisfaction, ordered me to
take charge of one of them, called the _Flora_. Tumbling into one of
the boats with ten hands, I quickly pulled aboard, and found that she
carried twelve guns and a crew of thirty-five men. The Frenchmen looked
very glum when I told them that they were to get into the boat and go
aboard our ship. I kept one of them, a black, Pierre by name, who spoke
English and had been the captain's steward. The first service he did me
was to act as interpreter, and as he knew where everything was stowed, I
thought he would be use