aining stock of chickens that
we had found on board the schooner when we took her.

The moment that the soup had disappeared the captain began to ask me
questions, in reply to which I gave him a succinct account of our
adventures from the moment when we parted company from the rest of the
boats; and when I had finished he paid me a high compliment upon what he
was pleased to term the skill and judgment that I had displayed
throughout. He then recounted what had befallen the launch, from which
I learned that the entire flotilla of boats had remained together--the
faster boats accommodating their pace to the slower craft--until caught
in the tail-end of the hurricane,--which with them only reached the
strength of a moderate gale,--when they were perforce compelled to
separate, from which time the launch had seen none of the others again.
It appeared that the launch, deeply loaded as she was, suffered very
nearly as much as we in the gig did; the few in her who were capable of
doing any work having their hands full in keeping her above water. The
sea had broken over them heavily, all but swamping them upon several
occasions, and destroying the greater part of their provisions, so that
within three days after the cessation of the gale they found themselves
without food and face to face with starvation. Then followed a terrible
story of protracted suffering, ending in many cases in madness and
death, of fruitless effort to work the heavy boat, and finally of utter
helplessness, despair, and--oblivion. The captain informed me that he
had little hope that any of the other boats had outlived the gale, but
believed that if they were still afloat they would be found some forty
miles or so to the northward and eastward of where we had fallen in with
the launch.

In that direction therefore we continued our search, scouring the whole
ocean thereabout over an area of fully one hundred miles square, but we
found none of the other boats; and at length, when we had been cruising
for a full week, the captain, who by this time was rapidly regaining
strength, reluctantly gave the order for us to desist and bear up for
Jamaica. And I may as well here mention that none of the other boats
were ever again heard of, there being little doubt that they all
foundered during the gale.

CHAPTER SEVEN.

A DARING ACT OF PIRACY.

The captain, having thus sorrowfully and reluctantly abandoned all hope
of finding the missing boats, at onc