efore he could collect his
senses he found himself lashed to the thwarts with a lump in his mouth
which prevented him crying out, and the boat moving away from the shore,
and that was all he knew about the matter.

As Jim Bolton was very much hurt, we placed him in the fishing-boat with
a midshipman who volunteered to look after him, and anchored her to
await our return, while we with hearty goodwill pulled away in full
chase of the smuggler. By this time, however, a fresh breeze had come
off the land, which filled the sails of the lugger just as Johnson
sprang from his boat upon her deck, and before a breath of air had
reached the cutter he had run her far out of sight, winding his way
among those reefs yonder. Seeing there was no chance of overtaking him
in the gig, we pulled on board, and as soon as the uncertain air put the
vessel through the water, we made chase in the direction we calculated
the _Polly_ would take. For some time we cruised up and down over the
ground where we thought we might fall in with her, but could see nothing
of her, and we then returned to take out the midshipman and Jim, and to
restore the boat to the fisherman.

We, with several other cruisers, were employed for some weeks in looking
out for Johnson, but neither he nor the _Polly_ was ever again heard of
on this coast.

Ten years passed away, and I belonged to a brig in the West Indies, that
clime of yellow fevers and sugar-canes. In those days the slave-trade
flourished, for, as we had not become philanthropists, we did not
interfere with those whose consciences did not prevent them from
bartering for gold their own souls and the blood of their
fellow-creatures. There was, however, a particular craft we were
ordered to look after which had made herself amenable to the laws,
having gone somewhat out of the usual line of trade, by committing
several very atrocious acts of piracy. She was commanded, it was said,
by an Englishman, a villain of no ordinary cast, who never intentionally
left alive any of those he plundered to tell the tale of their wrongs.
He sailed his vessel, a schooner carrying twelve guns, under Spanish
colours, though of course he hoisted, on occasion, those of any other
nation to suit his purpose. We all knew both him and his schooner, for
before her real character was suspected, we had for some days laid
alongside her at the Havanna, and were in consequence selected by the
admiral to look out for her. We had