ed
and a shot to be fired across her forefoot as a gentle hint for her to
remain where she was. To my surprise--for slavers do not often fight
when they find themselves opposed to a superior force--the brigantine
promptly replied to our single shot by letting drive at us with her
starboard broadside of four 9-pounders, none of which, however, came
near us, for the sea was altogether too high to allow of accurate
shooting. For this reason I refrained from firing a second time, but
replied to our antagonist by making sail, for it now appeared as though
she had some hope of escaping to windward by outsailing and weathering
upon us. Evidently her people did not know the little _Francesca_! The
first quarter of an hour of the chase sufficed to prove that the _San
Antonio_ could not possibly escape us in the manner that her people had
evidently believed would be successful. Not only did we outsail her,
but we also contrived to edge down upon her to within about a cable's-
length, when her skipper deliberately opened fire upon us with his
broadside guns, apparently with the hope that a lucky shot would knock
away a spar or two aboard us, and thus compel us to abandon the chase.
But this was a game that two could play at, and since the rascal seemed
determined not to yield without a fight we cleared away our Long Tom and
proceeded to return his compliments. To shoot with any degree of
accuracy in such a sea was impossible, and I was particularly anxious to
avoid hulling the fellow, for I knew that this would mean the killing of
several of the unfortunate slaves in her hold. I therefore gave
instructions to the men working the gun to exercise the utmost care, and
to fire only when they could be reasonably certain that their shot would
not strike the brigantine's hull. By observing this precaution we at
length succeeded in shooting away his fore-topmast, and thus rendering
him helpless to continue his flight. Whereupon, like a sensible fellow,
he ran the Spanish flag up to his gaff, allowed it to flutter there for
a moment, and then hauled it down again in token of his surrender.

Our chance encounter with the brigantine thus ended satisfactorily
enough, so far as we were concerned. However, it was not until the next
morning that the weather had moderated sufficiently to enable us to take
possession of our prize, when we found that we had captured a very smart
vessel of two hundred and sixty-five tons measurement, with a