crowd, and restrained any
attempt at violence. The young man at the same time held up his hand
and asked leave to address them.

"Ay! ay! let's hear what he has got to say. That's it; speak up, Dan!"

The youth, whose dark olive complexion proclaimed him to be a
half-caste, and whose language shewed that he had received at least the
rudiments of education, stretched out his hand and said--

"Friends, I do not stand here to interfere with justice. Those who seek
to give a pirate his just reward do well. But there has been doubt in
the minds of some that this man may not be a pirate. His own word is of
no value; but if I can bring forward anything to shew that perhaps his
word is true, then we have no right to hang him till we have given him a
longer trial."

"Hear! hear!" from the white men in the crowd, and "Ho! ho!" from the
natives.

Meanwhile the young man, or Dan, as some one called him, turned to
Bumpus and asked for the letter to which he had referred. Being
informed that it was in the inside pocket of his jacket, the youth put
his hand in and drew it forth.

"May I read it? Your life may depend on what I find here."

"Sartinly, by all manner of means," replied Jo, not a little surprised
at the turn affairs were taking.

Dan opened and perused the epistle for a few minutes, during which
intense silence was maintained in the crowd, as if they expected to
_hear_ the thoughts of the young man as they passed through his brain.

"Ha! I thought so," exclaimed Dan, looking up and again addressing the
crowd. "At the trial yesterday you heard this man say that he was
engaged at San Francisco by Gascoyne on the 12th of April last, and that
he believed the schooner to be a sandalwood trader when he shipped."

"Yes, yes, ho!" from the crowd.

"If this statement of his be true, then he was not a pirate when he
shipped, and he has not had much time to become one between that time
and this. The letter which I hold in my hand proves the truth of this
statement. It is dated San Francisco, 11th _April_, and is written in a
female hand. Listen, I will read it, and you shall judge for
yourselves."

The young man then read the following letter, which, being a peculiar as
well as an interesting specimen of a love-letter, we give _verbatim et
literatim_:--

"Peelers farm near Sanfransko Aprile 11.

"For John bumpuss, aboord the Skooner fome

"my darlin Jo,

"ever sins you towld me yisterday that