the small amount of plunder that lay in the storehouse, and the
guns, conveyed on board the _Tern_ and sent down her main hatchway.
This job took us about two hours, during which a few shots were
occasionally fired at us from the woods; but as the bullets all fell
short, we did not trouble ourselves to go in pursuit of the individuals
who were firing upon us. Our next act was to blow up the magazine, thus
destroying the whole of the pirates' stock of ammunition; and when this
had been successfully accomplished, we went systematically to work, and
set fire to the whole of the storehouses and barracks, one after the
other, until the whole place was in flames. Finally, we turned our
attention to the seven dwelling-houses on the hillside. These proved,
to our astonishment, to be most elegantly and sumptuously furnished in
every respect, the only peculiarity noticeable being a lack of
uniformity among the articles contained in some of the houses, plainly
showing that they had been gathered together at different times and from
different places. Evidences of female influence were abundantly present
in all these houses, from which we assumed that they formed the abode of
Morillo and his most important subordinates during their short sojourns
in port. The six largest of these buildings we set fire to, leaving the
seventh as a refuge for the unfortunate women, who were doubtless
concealed at no great distance in the adjacent woods.

The burning of these houses completed the destruction of the settlement,
which was accomplished absolutely without casualties of any kind _on
our_ side. We waited until the houses were well ablaze, and then
retreated in good order to the harbour, a few shots being fired at us
here and there from ambush as we went; but as we were well out of range
I took no notice of them, and in due time we arrived once more on the
wharf.

Our next business was to take possession of the brig, which we did
forthwith, Christie, with eight hands, going on board her as a prize
crew. She was a beamy, bluff-bowed, motherly old craft named the _Three
Sisters_, hailing out of Port-of-Spain, and was evidently British built,
her whole appearance being that of a sober, honest, slow-going trader,
such as one constantly meets with, doing business among the islands.
Her hold, however, was full of booty; and I conjectured that Morillo
had, through his agents, purchased her in a perfectly straightforward
manner for use in th