ed on the starboard tack, with our recapture in
company.

It was more than a week, however, before we contrived to obtain any
definite information as to the whereabouts of the British fleet, and
even then I was four days longer in finding it; but when at length this
was achieved, I had the satisfaction of learning that my information was
the very latest of an authentic character that had been furnished to
Nelson; and it had the effect of causing him instantly to determine to
retrace his steps to Europe. This was good news to me, for it enabled
me to send my recapture across the Atlantic with the British fleet as a
protector, instead of taking her into Kingston, in Jamaica, where the
necessary formalities connected with the capture would have involved us
in a vast amount of trouble and expense. I accordingly wrote a brief
letter or two home, which I forwarded by the _Caribbean_, and parted
company with her and the fleet within an hour of having fallen in with
the latter. And thus terminated, successfully and profitably, the
service which I had undertaken at the instigation of the Admiral
stationed at Jamaica.

I was now my own master once more, free to go wherever my whim prompted
me, and I determined that I would put into effect a plan that had long
commended itself to me; namely, to cruise along the Spanish Main in the
hope of picking up one of the galleons or plate-ships that were still
despatched from time to time from Cartagena. Upon parting company,
therefore, with the British fleet, I cruised along the whole line of the
Windward Islands as far south as Tobago and Trinidad, and then bore up
for the Main. In leisurely fashion and under easy canvas we coasted
along the shore, taking a look into the Cariaco Gulf without finding
anything worth picking up, and thence across to Cape Codera, off which
the wind came out from the westward, compelling us to make a stretch off
the land. This occurred about midnight. I secured an observation for
my longitude at nine o'clock the next morning, and another for my
latitude at noon, about which time I became aware that the barometer was
falling, although not rapidly enough to give cause for any uneasiness.
As the afternoon wore on, however, there were indications that a change
of weather was impending. The sky lost the pure brilliancy of its blue,
and by insensible degrees assumed an ashen pallor, which the sun vainly
struggled to pierce until he merged from a palpitating,