sage, that
being the channel most frequently used by our merchantmen. I
accordingly set the course for Morant Point, and then went below and
turned in.

When I went on deck next morning, shortly after daybreak, I found that
the _Diane_ had weathered the point and was now on the starboard tack,
heading well up for Cape Mayzi, with the Blue Mountains already assuming
the hue from which they are named, as the brigantine rapidly left them
astern. It was a brilliant morning, with the trade wind piping up to
the tune of half a gale; yet the little ship was showing her
topgallantsail to it, and sheering through the rather short, choppy sea
like a mad thing, with her yards braced hard in against the lee rigging,
and the lower half of her foresail dark with spray, while the white foam
hissed and seethed and raced past her to leeward at a pace that made one
giddy to look at. That the _Diane_ was a perfect marvel in the matter
of speed--and a good sea-boat withal--was undeniable; and as I stood
aft, to windward of the helmsman, and watched the little hooker
thrashing along, I felt sanguine that, should we be fortunate enough to
encounter Senor Morillo, he would have but small chance of escaping us
by showing a clean pair of heels.

The following midnight found us handsomely weathering Cape Mayzi, the
most easterly extremity of the island of Cuba, after which we held on
until we had brought the southern extremity of Great Inagua broad abeam,
when we again tacked, and so worked our way out to sea between the
Handkerchief shoal and Grand Caicos, passing an inward-bound Indiaman on
the way. I spoke this vessel, asking if they had sighted any suspicious
craft of late; to which the skipper replied that four days previously he
had been chased by a French brig, which he had contrived to elude in the
darkness; and that he had on the following day sighted and spoken the
British frigate _Euterpe_, which had forthwith proceeded in quest of the
brig. Thenceforth we sighted nothing until our fifth day out, when we
fell in with the _Euterpe_, which had just returned to her station after
an unsuccessful search. Two days later we sighted a British privateer,
which made sail and tried to run away from us as soon as she made out
our pennant, fearing--so the skipper said when we overhauled and
compelled him to heave-to--that we should impress some of his men. But,
as I had as many hands as I required, I let him go without compelling
him to p