had
mourned for me as for a brother, and their delight at finding I still
lived convinced me of the truth of the assertion. Later I learned that
the Mendouca family were still enjoying Don Luis' hospitality, pending
the rebuilding of Montpelier.

It was not until after ten o'clock that night that I succeeded in
dragging myself away from Bella Vista, and only then upon the promise,
which I most willingly gave, to keep in touch with them by letter, and
repeat my visit as often as possible. But so far as the latter part of
my promise was concerned, fate was against me, for I never again was
privileged to meet any of them.

It was six bells of the first watch when I reached the _Berwick Castle_,
by which time the land-breeze was piping up strong; and as soon as the
boat was hoisted to the davits we filled away for Port Royal, where we
arrived in due course, and landed our prisoners, to the number of
twenty-three. Three weeks later they underwent their trial for piracy
on the high seas, and, the evidence against them being overwhelming,
they were all hanged at Gallows Point a fortnight after their
conviction.

As for me and my crew, we obtained full and even generous recognition
for our exploit, the merchants of the various West Indian islands
combining together to present me with an exceedingly handsome service of
plate, and to subscribe to a purse the contents of which was to be
divided _pro rata_ among the other officers and men of the expedition.
The Admiral was good enough to express unbounded satisfaction at what he
was pleased to term "the unusual skill and discretion" with which the
task of exterminating a most formidable nest of pirates had been carried
out; and he took considerable pains to afford me an early opportunity,
not only to undergo the formalities of a court-martial for the loss of
the _Wasp_, but also to pass my examination. Immediately after this
latter event he presented me with my commission to a crack frigate; and
in her I subsequently saw much exciting service, lasting up to the
short-lived peace of Amiens, toward the end of the year 1801, by which
time I had attained to the rank of post-captain. But although many of
my subsequent experiences as an officer of the British Royal Navy were
sufficiently strange and exciting, it was never again my lot to cross
swords with a pirate; for "pirating" became an occupation to be shunned,
so far as the West Indian waters were concerned, for several yea