ve got some booty on board the
_Tigress_, but what it is worth I have no idea, for we simply bundled
the things down below without opening anything. Still, no doubt it will
be enough to give you a few pounds a head."

As soon as he could get away Wilkinson returned to the brig. That
evening, at the admiral's table, he gave a much more detailed account of
their doings than he had done in his reports. When he had finished, Sir
Sidney Smith said:

"That attack upon the pirates' hold was extremely well managed, Mr.
Wilkinson, and does you and Mr. Blagrove great credit. You were very
brief in your account of it, and only said that a considerable amount of
booty, which had evidently been taken from plundered ships, was found
concealed, and that the more valuable portion was shipped on the
_Tigress_. I will come on board in the morning, and you can have a few
of those bales brought up on to the main deck, and we can see what is in
them."

A dozen bales were opened the next day; two contained European goods,
the rest Eastern manufactures, silks and embroideries, Turkish, Syrian,
and Persian carpets and rugs.

"That is enough!" Sir Sidney said. "Now, can you roughly give me an idea
what proportion of European goods, dried fruits, and what we may call
generally Eastern goods, you have?"

"There are about twenty tons of fruit, sir, thirty tons of European
bales, and fifty or sixty tons of Eastern goods. Of these, I should say
that two-thirds are carpets and rugs, we could pretty well tell these
from the others by the size and feel of the bales; the rest are, judging
from the few we opened, cloth for female garments--muslin, silks,
scarves, sashes, and embroidered goods.

"It is extraordinary how so great a collection could have been made."

"There have been a great many vessels employed in the making of it, sir,
and we may say that we have here the pick from at least a hundred,
perhaps several times that number, of captured craft of several sizes.
No doubt the pirates would, in all cases, put aside goods of this kind,
for although of no use to themselves, and no doubt very difficult to
sell, they would store them away under the idea that some time or other
an opportunity would occur of turning them into money."

"Well, there is no doubt that you have an extremely rich prize. I should
be afraid to give even an approximate calculation of what all this is
worth. Some of our East-Indiamen bring very valuable cargoes home; but