HE GUERRILLA.

On the morning but one succeeding the capture of the _Dolores_,--the
schooner and her prize then being some two hundred and forty miles to
the westward of Dominica,--a sail was discovered at daybreak some twelve
miles to the southward and westward of us, beating up against the trade
wind, close-hauled upon the starboard tack; and a few minutes later she
was made out to be a brigantine. We paid but scant attention to her at
first, craft of her rig being frequently met with in the Caribbean,
trading to and fro between the islands; but when the stranger, almost
immediately after her rig had been identified, tacked to the northward,
as though with the intention of getting a closer look at us, I at once
scented an enemy, and, possessing myself of the telescope, forthwith
made my way into the fore crosstrees for the purpose of subjecting her
to a rigorous examination, wondering, meanwhile, whether by any adverse
chance the stranger might eventually turn out to be the notorious pirate
Morillo in his equally notorious brigantine the _Guerrilla_. I had no
sooner got the craft fairly within the field of the instrument than I
discovered my conjecture to be correct, a score of trifling details of
rig and equipment becoming instantly recognisable as identical with
similar peculiarities already noticed by me when I before saw the pirate
vessel.

Such is the perversity of blind fortune! Under ordinary circumstances
nothing would have pleased me better than to meet this audacious outlaw
and his cut-throat crew in a clear sea, and to try conclusions with
them. But now I was hampered with the possession of a valuable prize
which I was most anxious to take safely into port, while my little force
was seriously weakened by the withdrawal of the prize crew which I had
been obliged to put on board the _Dolores_. It was therefore not wholly
without apprehension that, under these untoward circumstances, I
witnessed the approach of the formidable brigantine. I would have
preferred to have met her, if possible, upon somewhat more equal terms;
but there she was, doubtless bent upon the capture of the _Dolores_, and
there was nothing for it but to prepare for her as warm a reception as
it was in our power to give. I therefore descended to the deck and gave
orders to call all hands and clear for action, at the same time
signalling to Christie that the stranger in sight was a pirate, and that
he was to keep out of harm's way du