rboard tack, in the first instance, and we held on upon this tack
until I found, by means of a simple little diagram, drawn to scale upon
a piece of paper, that we could fetch her on the next tack when we hove
the schooner round. But my hopes of being able to rescue the Spaniards
were fast fading away, for the wind had evinced a decided disposition to
drop with the setting of the sun; and when we at length tacked to fetch
the spot where we expected to find the _Santa Theresa_, the schooner was
going through the water at a speed of barely four knots. And, according
to my reckoning, the ship was just that distance from us; so that it
would occupy us another hour to fetch her, and I was exceedingly
doubtful whether she would remain afloat so long. Indeed, I greatly
feared that she had foundered already, for the night, although dark, was
clear. The stars were shining brilliantly from zenith to horizon, and
it appeared to me that if she was still afloat we ought to be able to
see the blur of her canvas against the sky. But although I searched the
horizon from broad on the one bow to broad on the other, using for the
purpose an exceptionally fine night-glass that I found in Renouf's
cabin, I was unable to make her out.

Once or twice, it is true, I thought I had caught her right ahead, but
it unfortunately happened that the portion of sky in that quarter was
bare of stars over a space very considerably larger than would have been
covered by the ship's canvas, and consequently I was without the
assurance that would have been afforded me had the faint, dusky
appearance that I took to be her sails alternately eclipsed and exposed
a star. But I afterwards had reason to believe that I had really seen
her, for when we had arrived within about a mile of the spot where I
supposed her to be, a faint, wailing cry, as of people in the last
extremity of despair, came pealing distinctly to us across the black
water, and about a quarter of an hour later we suddenly found ourselves
among a quantity of floating oars, buckets, hatches, and other articles
that had undoubtedly belonged to the Spaniard. The presence of these
articles proved conclusively that the unfortunate ship had gone down,
and the cry that we had heard was doubtless the last despairing cry of
her hapless, helpless passengers and crew. Thus to the crime of piracy
Renouf had added the far worse one of wholesale murder, for Dumaresq
asserted that, according to his estima