g, I managed to gain a pretty clear idea of the incidents of the
attack upon the _Bangalore_ each one having passed through some more or
less trying experience which he or she was anxious to relate to the
rest; and when the meal was over Mr Molyneux, a Calcutta merchant, rose
to his feet and, while formally thanking me on behalf of himself and his
fellow-passengers for what I had already done, expressed their perfect
concurrence in the wish of the surviving crew that I should take command
of the ship, merely suggesting the great desirability of navigating her
forthwith to the nearest civilised port. This, of course, was my own
fixed intention, and I suggested Sierra Leone as the most suitable spot
for which to make, it being as near as any other, with the advantage
that the necessary officers to navigate the ship home, and a sufficient
number of men to make up the full complement of the crew, might almost
certainly be reckoned upon being found there.

The brigantine had left us, and with her departure everybody appeared to
consider the danger as past. This, however, was an opinion which I by
no means shared; for, knowing Mendouca so well as I did, I felt that it
was by no means unlikely that, having reached an offing of some ten or
twelve miles, he might order the sweeps to be laid in until daylight, in
order that he might remain in our neighbourhood and assure himself by
the actual demonstration of his own--or Pedro's--eyesight that the
_Bangalore_ had foundered, taking with her to the bottom all evidence of
the atrocious crime of which he and his crew had been guilty. And, even
should no uncomfortable doubts on this point assail him, he _must_
learn, ere the lapse of many hours, that I and others were missing; and
then, guessing, as he would at once, at the explanation of our absence,
nothing would prevent him from returning and taking, or attempting to
take, such measures as would insure our eternal silence.

I therefore considered it a singular if not an actually providential
occurrence that when I went out on deck after dinner--or supper--the sky
should have become overcast, with scarcely a star to be seen, with every
appearance of both wind and rain ere long. It had become exceedingly
dark, so much so that no sign of the brigantine was to be discovered,
but by listening intently the roll and clatter of her sweeps were still
to be caught; and it was with very deep and fervent thankfulness that,
after listening