sh-looking craft in the harbour, and on which it was his special
duty to keep an eye.

Picturesque and attractive as Havannah is in many respects, Jack came to
the opinion that it would undoubtedly become a much finer place were it
in the hands of the English or Americans.

Once upon a time it did become a British possession. When in the year
1762 the Spaniards and English went to war, as soon as hostilities had
broken out, the British government despatched a fleet under Sir George
Pocock, with an army of 1600 men, commanded by the Earl of Albemarle.

The fleet consisted of twenty-two sail of the line, four ships of fifty
guns, ten frigates, and seventeen small vessels. That so powerful a
force was sent out, showed the belief of the English in the strength of
the fortifications. The Spaniards, however, had but little stomach for
the fight.

While the fleet threatened them on the sea side, the troops landed to
the east and west of the city, and attacking it in the rear quickly made
themselves masters of the renowned fortifications. On the return of
peace, a few months afterwards, it was once more placed under the
fearful mismanagement of the Spaniards, and now only awaits a favourable
opportunity to be taken possession of by the Yankees.

Whatever may be said of Havannah, Jack found it a very pleasant place,
but he took good care never to sleep on shore, or indeed at any time to
remain longer away from his ship than possible. He made several
excursions round the harbour, not so much to enjoy its beauties, as to
examine the before-mentioned rakish-looking craft which lay moored to
the quays, apparently for the purpose of taking in cargo; he could
never, however, observe anything going forward on board them during the
daytime. Needham had, however, several times in the evening, taken a
pull in the dinghy among the vessels. He reported that there was some
bustle on board one of them in particular, and that he could hear the
sound of hammering going on within her.

"It is my idea, sir, that they are fitting up slave-decks. Depend on
it, before long some of them will be trying to get out, if they have the
chance, without our seeing them. I marked a craft called the _Venus_
which came in at sunset, when you were on shore, and if she is not the
very schooner we chased, she is wonderfully like her. She is large, and
to my mind faster than any of them; but if she can get whatever she
wants, and her cargo shipped,