ragged him on board. He was
wounded in the arm and was bleeding freely. But, notwithstanding, his
clothes were, by the captain's orders, torn off, and he was exposed
naked to the burning rays of the sun. When he had suffered thus for an
hour, the tyrant went to him and asked with suppressed rage:

"Now traitor, will you confess?"

"I am innocent," replied the half-dead wretch, "I know of nothing."

"Here," cried the captain to his savages, "take him and row him into
the inlet; there leave him in the swamp; we'll see whether the
gad-flies will not help his memory. You," continued the captain, "go
with them, and give heed to this example."

Five of the pirates, armed with pistols and swords, bound the wretched
man, hand and foot, threw him into the boat and rowed into the inlet.
Just at the mouth of it there was a morass filled with gad-flies and
other poisonous insects. Into this dreadful ditch they threw their
former comrade, and then withdrew to a short distance to jeer at and
mock him. In about an hour they drew him out again; he was still
living, but his body was so covered with blisters that he looked like
nothing human. In this condition he was taken to the ship again.

"Has he confessed?" shouted the captain to us as we were approaching.

We replied in the negative.

"Then shoot him down like a dog."

Two of the robbers seized him, one presented a pistol to his forehead,
another to his breast; they were both discharged at the same moment,
and the unhappy man was bathed in his own blood. As he gave no further
sign of life, they hurled him overboard.

What a deed of horror! I passed a fearful night, for I could not close
my eyes when I thought of the probable fate that awaited me among
these miscreants.

III.

The next morning I went sadly enough to my labor, which consisted in
cutting and making a new sail, when at about ten o'clock, the watch at
the mast-head, cried out:

"A sail! a sail!"

I went aloft, and saw that it was a large merchant vessel. The captain
weighed anchor, sailed down upon her and when he supposed himself sure
of his prey, fired off a cannon; the brig hoisted the English flag and
lay to. This unexpected manoeuvre seemed very suspicious to the
captain; he began to believe that he had to deal with a man-of-war;
changed his plan, and determined upon boarding the strange vessel; he
gave orders to have two boats manned with the bravest of his crew,
which should attack the ship upo