been so employed for several weeks,
when, one day towards noon, we made out a sail to the southward, towards
which we ran down with a light northerly wind. As we neared her, which
we rapidly did, we saw that she was a lofty ship--a merchantman
evidently--and that she was not only not moving through the waters, but
that her braces were loose, and her yards swinging about in every
direction. Not a soul was looking over her bulwarks when we came within
hail, but the men in the tops sang out that they could see several
people lying about the decks either asleep or dead. We ran almost
alongside, when I was ordered to board her with one of the gigs. Never
shall I forget the scene which met my sight as I stepped on her decks;
they were a complete shambles: a dozen or more men lay about in the
after part of the ship, the blood yet oozing from deep gashes on their
heads and shoulders, not one of them alive; while on the steps of the
companion-ladder were two women, young and fair they appeared to have
been, clasped in each other's arms, and both dead.

On descending below, we discovered an old lady and a venerable, old
gentleman on the deck of the state cabin with the marks of pistol
bullets in their foreheads, while at the door of an inner cabin lay a
black servant with his head completely twisted round.

I will not mention all the sights of horror we encountered; the
murderers seemed to have exerted their ingenuity in disfiguring their
victims. There were several other dead people below, and at last,
searching round the ship, we found stowed away in the forehold a seaman,
who, though desperately wounded, still breathed. When brought on deck
and a few drops of spirits were poured down his throat, he after some
time came to himself, then told us that they had in the morning been
attacked by a pirate, who, after they had made a desperate resistance,
had carried them by boarding, when every soul in the ship was cut down
or thrown into the sea except himself; that he, having fallen down the
hatchway just before the pirates rushed on board, had stowed himself
away amongst the cargo, and there after some time had fainted from loss
of blood. While he lay there, he could hear the shrieks of his
shipmates and the shouts and execrations of their butchers, he
expecting, every instant, to share the fate of the rest. At last all
was silent, the pirates made an ineffectual attempt to scuttle the ship,
but were hurried off, probably,