l
of the stores. On Thursday the ship was righted, swung, and hove down
again, exposing the other side of her bottom, and the process of
cleaning, painting and drying was repeated, the operation being
completed by the end of the week. Sunday was again observed as a day to
be devoted to worship and recreation, and on Monday morning the ship was
finally righted and the work of replacing her ballast, stores, ordnance,
ammunition and so on was begun, the task ending on the following Friday
night, by which time the _Nonsuch_ was once more all ataunto and ready
for any adventure which her young captain might choose to engage in.
And, meanwhile, the invalids, who, at Doctor Chichester's suggestion,
had been spared all labour, had completely recovered from their
sickness, and were as well and strong again as ever. And, incidentally,
the python which George had slain at the Blue Basin had been most
scientifically skinned and the skin cured, stuffed with dry grass,
stitched up, and the head joined to it again by an Indian whose services
the young captain had contrived to secure; and when the _Nonsuch_ sailed
out of the Gulf of Paria on the eventful Saturday which saw the actual
beginning of her great adventure, the skin--measuring thirty-four feet
eight and a half inches from snout to tail--gracefully, if somewhat
gruesomely, adorned the forward bulkhead of her state cabin.

CHAPTER FIVE.

HOW THEY CAPTURED THE "SANTA MARIA" AT MARGARITA.

By the advice of Dyer, the pilot, George kept the mainland aboard upon
issuing from the Gulf of Paria; for the island of Margarita was at no
great distance to the westward. And not only was Margarita the spot
where the Spaniards had established a vastly profitable pearl-fishing
industry, but it was also a kind of depot where all sorts of supplies
from Old Spain for the maintenance of her West Indian possessions were
landed and stored, to be drawn upon as occasion might demand. There
was, therefore, the double possibility of securing a more or less rich
booty of pearls, and of replenishing the stores, somewhat depleted by
two months of usage, at the Spaniards' expense.

Now, it was usual to approach Margarita from the northward; but that
course involved the risk of being sighted from the battery which the
Spaniards had constructed on the north-eastern extremity of the island;
and to be sighted meant that the garrison of the battery would give
timely warning to the colonists, who wou