the barracoon compounds, feeding them up, and nursing the
sick--of whom, however, there was luckily a singularly small percentage.
But on the morning of the third day, before the gig had started upon
her daily cruise of surveillance of the river, the look-out whose turn
it was for duty in the crow's-nest had scarcely ascended to his lofty
perch in the tree when he hurried down again with the intelligence that
three craft--a ship, a barque, and a large brigantine--were in the
offing and making for the mouth of the river. Whereupon Mr Purchase
volunteered to go aloft, taking me with him as aide-de-camp, to keep an
eye upon the strangers, and to transmit intelligence of their movements
from time to time. The skipper promptly accepted the offer and,
besides, arranged a system by which I was to write Mr Purchase's
messages, carry them from the crow's-nest to the ground, and deliver
them over to one of two midshipmen in waiting, who would at once scamper
off with it, while I ascended the Jacob's ladder again for further
information, to be transmitted by the second midshipman--if, meanwhile,
the first had not had time to return. This system acted admirably, for
it kept the captain fully informed of the course of events, and at the
same time left him quite free to attend to such preparations for the
reception of the three craft as he might deem necessary.

These preparations were beautifully simple, consisting merely in the
arming of every man capable of taking part in what would probably prove
to be a fairly stubborn fight, manning the boats with the fighting
contingent, and then remaining concealed until the approaching craft had
come up to the anchorage and made fast to the buoys,--as we fully
expected that they would,--when the boats were to make a simultaneous
dash at all three craft and carry them by boarding, while we invalids
were left to look after the prisoners and see that they did not break
out and create a diversion in favour of their friends.

Meanwhile the land-breeze was fast dying away in the offing, while the
sea-breeze had not yet set in, consequently, when the approaching craft
arrived within about two miles of the river's mouth they entered a
streak of glassy calm, and lay there, rolling heavily, with their sun-
bleached canvas napping itself threadbare against their masts and
rigging, thus affording us an excellent opportunity to get breakfast at
leisure, and fortify ourselves generally against the stre