alling stark
calm within the next hour or two. I, therefore, told myself that,
taking everything into consideration, there was really no great need for
hurry. But I had not to wait very long, for within half-an-hour the
Dutchmen had done all that was possible for them to do; and by noon I
had completed my somewhat disagreeable task of transferring all the
prisoners to the _Europa_, taking with me, on my last trip, the Dutch
surgeon's report upon the losses incurred by the _Gelderland_ during the
action. These, as anticipated by Van Halst, were exceedingly heavy, the
killed numbering thirty-two, while the wounded totalled no less than one
hundred and thirty-one, of whom at least ten were so desperately hurt
that there was little hope of their outlasting the night.

By the time that all this was done, Mr Howard had got our new
fore-topmast on end and rigged, the topsail-yard aloft and secured, and
the topsail, fore-topmast staysail, and jib set, when we at once filled
on the ship and hauled our wind in pursuit of the Indiamen, Mr Percival
having received orders to follow us as soon as he could make sail. Then
we piped to dinner, all hands having spent a most strenuously busy
morning.

At four bells in the afternoon watch the wind had fined down to such an
extent that the frigate was making no more than a bare four knots
through the water, although we had by this time got up the
fore-topgallant and royal-masts again and were once more under all plain
sail; while, as for the two Indiamen, built as cargo-carriers rather
than for speed, they appeared to scarcely have steerage-way, and seemed
to maintain their luff only with the utmost difficulty--indeed, there
were times when they fell so broad off as to present their full
broadsides to us. But although their capture might now be regarded as
practically certain, they were evidently not disposed to yield without
making some sort of a struggle for liberty, for they were on opposite
tacks, one of them having gone about; the idea, of course, being to
separate and widen their distance as much as possible in the hope that
by so doing one of them at least might escape, even if the other were
captured. Captain Vavassour, however, did not allow these tactics to
disconcert him in the least; he fixed upon one of them as the object of
his pursuit--altogether disregarding the movements of the other,
meanwhile--and devoted all his efforts to close with her, with the
result that by