h and so little disturbed that at a distance of a quarter
of a mile it vanished altogether. And when, an hour or so later, having
made a good offing, the skipper ordered her to be hauled to the wind on
a taut bowline for a short time, to test her speed under those
conditions, and then put her about, she went to windward and tacked like
a yacht.

Our cruising-ground was a fairly extensive one, stretching from the
longitude of Cape la Hague on the one hand to longitude 10 degrees West
on the other, and from latitude 50 degrees North to Cape Finisterre; in
other words, it embraced the chops of the Channel and the whole of the
Bay of Biscay; and our duty was to protect British commerce on the high
seas, and harry the enemy generally. The wide limits of our
cruising-ground, and the fact that, for the moment at least, we were
free to go whither we pleased within those limits, was a source of the
keenest gratification to all hands, for it was just within that area
that the privateers of the enemy were then displaying the most activity
and doing the greatest amount of mischief; and we were all looking
forward hopefully to the prospect of making plenty of captures and
recaptures. But those of us who had been shipmates together in the old
_Colossus_ found an additional source of gratification in the speed of
our new craft; for whereas in the _Colossus_--which was possibly the
slowest ship ever launched--we had done plenty of chasing, we had never
been able to catch anything unless all the conditions were strongly in
our favour; while now we hoped to find the state of affairs very much
the opposite.

It was not only upon the speed of the _Europa_, however, that we built
our hopes of success; for not only was she an unusually fast vessel, but
she carried an exceptionally heavy armament for a ship of her class,
namely, twenty-four long 24-pounders on her main-deck, and fourteen long
8-pounders on her quarter-deck and forecastle; while, to crown all, her
crew consisted of two hundred and ninety-two men--every one of whom had
voluntarily entered. Furthermore, of those two hundred and ninety-two
men, no less than one hundred and sixty-five had been aboard the
_Colossus_, and had joined after being paid off from that craft; while,
on the quarter-deck, the skipper, Mr Galway the second lieutenant, Mr
Trimble the master, Maxwell the master's-mate, Gascoigne a midshipman,
Mr Purvis the gunner, and myself had all been shipmates togethe