le; and
there were we, not three miles from the land, with as dangerous a
stretch of lee-shore as is to be found in all this region abeam of us.
Fortunately the schooner's extraordinary weatherliness stood us in good
stead, and enabled us to claw off, but for which we should probably have
left her bones, if not our own, there. Our mid-afternoon observations
showed us to be in latitude 22 degrees 21 minutes North, and longitude
71 degrees 57 minutes West, which position I considered far enough out
for our purpose; we therefore hove about and, under short canvas,
proceeded to work our way slowly to the southward and eastward, on the
lookout for anything that might chance to come our way.

For several days after this nothing of moment occurred. Finally we
found ourselves some two hundred miles to the northward and eastward of
the Mona Passage, and I was debating within myself whether to bear up
and go back over the ground which I had just traversed, or to continue
on and have a look at Porto Rico. But while I was thinking over the
question, the lookout in the fore crosstrees reported a sail to
windward, quickly succeeded by several others, whereupon we made sail
and shaped a course that would enable us to get a somewhat clearer view
of them, and, if necessary, to intercept them.

The lookout aloft soon reported that the leading ship was under short
canvas, while those which immediately followed her were covered to their
trucks, and showing studdingsails as well, from which piece of
information it was not difficult for me to guess that the strangers to
windward consisted of a convoy of merchantmen, with its escort of
men-o'-war. This conjecture of mine soon proved to be correct, for
within half-an-hour of their first appearance the leading ships were in
sight from the deck, and we made out the biggest of them to be a 74-gun
ship, the others in sight obviously being merchantmen. As we closed,
with ensign and pennant hoisted, the commodore signalled me to come
alongside and send a boat aboard, which I did, going in the boat myself
to see what news I could pick up. I thus learned that the ship I had
boarded was the _Goliath_, the captain of which was the commodore of the
squadron of convoying ships, consisting of--in addition to the
_Goliath_--the frigates _Tourmaline_ and _Spartiate_, and the gun-brigs
_Vulcan, Wolverine, Spitfire_, and _Tortoise_; the convoy consisting of
three hundred and eighty-seven sail of all sor