form of their commander appeared among them. In
consequence of his wound he had, contrary to his custom, entrusted the
command of the boarders to his first lieutenant, and had remained upon
his own vessel watching the fight. He sprung among his crew, with a
sword drawn, and a tight sash bound around his waist, from which the
dark blood was slowly oozing, his wound having burst away from its
ligaments.

"Cowards!" he shouted, "do ye yield--ye are two to their one."

Leaping to their front, he struck down a sailor and plunged into the
thickest of the fight. Reanimated by the presence of their leader, who
had so often led them to victory, a new spirit seemed to light up the
fainting courage of the pirates, and with a fierce yell they rushed
forward. The American crew were compelled to fall back before the
fierce assault. At the head of his men Lieut. Morris several times
crossed swords with the pirate captain, but the swaying of the fight
separated them. Perceiving that his men were slowly yielding, though
in good order, Lieutenant Morris, cool and collected, cheered their
courage, and at this moment thought of the long gun which had been
drawn up, loaded to the muzzle with grape and canister, against the
companion-way, and a man with a lighted match stationed by it.

"Fall back to the quarter-deck," cried the young officer.

They retreated in close array, and uncovered the mouth of the huge
gun. At the sight of this a cry of dismay broke from the foremost of
the pirates, who broke the front rank, and many of them escaped for
the time by leaping into the sea.

"Fire," cried Lieut. Morris. In a moment he was obeyed. Wild cries of
agony arose amid the gathering smoke, which, as it rolled away,
revealed a horrible sight. Not a living pirate stood upon the deck of
the privateer. A dense mass of bodies, writhing in pain, lay upon the
fore-deck, and many of the pirates who had jumped into the sea were
seen scrambling up the sides of their own vessel; the pirate chief
lay dead at the head of his followers, foremost in death, as he had
been in life. It was a terrible and revolting scene--the scuppers
literally ran with blood, the bulwarks were bespattered with brains
and pieces of scalps; several limbs were strewn about, and the entire
deck covered with the dead or dying.

While the crew of the Raker stood for a time awe-struck at the
desolation they had themselves made, the pirates, ferocious to the
last, had regained thei