And we left the river Sierra Leone the 10th day of May,
and came safe to Bristol, where I found a letter from the owner of the
ship I had gone out with, who had heard of my misfortune, and most
generously comforted me, giving money for my poor sailors and promising
me command of another ship--a promise which he soon after performed.

I shall now inform the reader what became of my kind schoolfellow,
Griffin, and my generous friend Davis. The first got out of the hands of
the pirates by taking away a boat from the stern of the ship he was in
when on the coast of Guinea, and was driven on shore there. But
afterwards he went passenger to Barbadoes in an English ship, where he
was taken with a violent fever, and so died.

As for Davis, he sailed to the island Princess, belonging to the
Portuguese, which is in the Bay of Guinea. Here the people soon
discovered they were pirates by their lavishness; but the Governor
winked at it, because of the great gain he made by them. But afterwards,
someone putting it into his mind that if the King of Portugal heard of
this it would be his ruin, he plotted to destroy Davis. And when, before
sailing, Captain Davis came on shore with the surgeon and some others to
bid farewell to the Governor, they found no Governor, but many people
with weapons were gathered together in the street, who at a word from
the Governor's steward fired at Davis and his men. The surgeon and two
others were killed on the spot, but Davis, though struck by four shots,
went on running towards the boat. But being closely pursued, a fifth
shot made him fall; and the Portuguese, being amazed at his great
strength and courage, cut his throat that they might be sure of him.
Thus fell Captain Davis, who, allowing for the course of life he had
been unhappily engaged in, was a most generous, humane person.

[Illustration]

_THE SPARTAN THREE HUNDRED_

THIS is the story of the greatest deed of arms that was ever done. The
men who fought in it were not urged by ambition or greed, nor were they
soldiers who knew not why they went to battle. They warred for the
freedom of their country, they were few against many, they might have
retreated with honour, after inflicting great loss on the enemy, but
they preferred, with more honour, to die.

It was four hundred and eighty years before the birth of Christ. The
Great King, as the Greeks called Xerxes, the Persian monarch, was
leading the innumerable armies of Asia aga