I was thus enabled to gain some idea of the place I had been brought
to. When I first came up from below, after so long a time passed in
obscurity, the daylight proved too much for my eyes, and I was obliged
to close them, and accustom myself to the glare by degrees. As soon as
I was able to look about me, however, I perceived that the _Fair Maid_
was lying in a very spacious river, not far from the mouth, and over
against a sort of rocky islet or peninsula, joined to the left bank of
the river by a strip of sand. On the rock there was built a very
strong castle, having a double wall and towers to protect it, but the
cannons of rather poor calibre. Alongside of us lay the fleet of the
pirates, composed of strange-looking vessels, having for the most part
two masts, one very much in the stern, and rigged with a huge sail,
the peak of which came much above the top of the mast. The prows of
these vessels stretched a great way forward out of the water having
the appearance of a bird's beak. The larger of these vessels, of which
there were about ten, are called grabs, and the smaller, of which I
counted upwards of sixty, gallivats. These latter are managed with
oars as well as sails, and when there is no wind they are employed to
tow the grabs behind them, so that in light weather it is easy for
them to overtake the ship of which they are in pursuit. They were all
armed with cannon, the grabs carrying as many as twenty or thirty
12-pounders, and the gallivats swivel-guns of 6 or 9 pounds.

We had lain in this position for more than a month, and I was
beginning to be afraid that Admiral Watson had altered his intention
of coming to reduce the pirates' stronghold, when one evening, as I
sat on the deck, just at the time that the wind changed and began to
blow in from the sea, I discerned a great commotion on shore in the
fortress, and turning my eyes towards the river's mouth I beheld a
most welcome sight, namely, a fleet of no less than fourteen ships,
arranged in two lines, with the _Talisman_ at their head, sailing
proudly in, with the British flag flying at their peaks, and their
tops all full of men, their guns run out through their portholes, and
their decks cleared for action.

As silently and as orderly as if they were in mid-ocean without a foe
in sight, they came sweeping up the river, doubled the rocky point,
and anchored one after the other, within two hundred yards of the
north wall of the fort.

CHAP