roaned beside him with a musket ball in his shoulder.

My arrival was the signal for a pause. As quickly as possible, I
inquired into the affray, which had originated like many a sailor's
dispute, on a question of precedence at the watering place in a
neighboring brook. The Danes were seven, and we but three. Our
Spaniards had been driven off, and my second mate, in charge of the
yawl, received a _trenchant_ blow from an oar-blade, which cut his
skull and felled him senseless on the sand.

Of course, "the watering" was over for the day, and both boats
returned to their vessels to tell their stories. The moment the Danes
got on board, they imprudently ran up their ensign; and, as this act
of apparent defiance occurred just as the Esperanza was receiving the
lifeless form of her officer, my excited crew discharged a broadside
in reply to the warlike token. Gun followed gun, and musketry rattled
against musketry. The Dane miscalculated the range of the guns, and
his grape fell short of my schooner, while our snarling sixes made sad
havoc with his bulwarks and rigging.

I had hardly learned the facts of the case and thought of a truce,
when the passionate Northman sent a round-shot whistling over my head.
Another and another followed in its wake, but they aimed too high for
damage. At twenty-four our blood is not so diplomatically pacific as
in later years, and this second aggression rekindled the lava in my
Italian veins. There was no longer question of a white flag or a
parley. In a twinkling, I slipped my cable and ran up the jib and
mainsail, so as to swing the schooner into a raking position at short
quarters; and before the Dane could counteract my manoeuvre, I gave
him a dose of grape and cannister which tore his ensign to ribbons and
spoiled the looks of his hull materially. My second shot splintered
the edge of his mast; but while I was making ready for a third, to
tickle him betwixt wind and water, down tumbled his impertinent
pendant and the day was won.

For a while there was a dead silence between the warriors. Neither
hailed nor sent a boat on board of the other. Ormond perceived this
cessation of hostilities from his piazza at Bangalang, and coming out
in a canoe, rowed to the Dane after hearing my version of the battle.

I waited anxiously either for his return or a message, but as I was
unadvised of the Mongo's views and temper in regard to the affray, I
thought it well, before dark, to avoid treachery