quickness of her sailing, and remarked to one another that she seemed well suited for the pirate life to which our conjectures assigned her.

"It was some time after this, that our boats arrived, and as it was now midnight instead of sunset, I reproved the boatmen for the delay. They excused themselves however, at once, by stating that they had been detained at the wharf, and not allowed to put off, by the order of the government at Santara, and that the moment they were permitted, they came away. After we were all well seated in the boats, and were pulling towards the Sylph, the whole affair was explained, for the sailors informed us, that shortly after sunset, several government boats, wellmanned, had left the wharf on some secret expedition, and that after some hours, they returned with a famous pirate sloop, which they had suddenly boarded, and captured without firing a shot-Calcraft mentioned what we had seen, and shortly afterwards we were on board the Sylph. Such was the first I ever saw or heard of the Dolphin.

"Some days afterwards I was led by an affair, which was altogether of a personal nature, and which I shall not mention, as it has no connexion with this adventure, to go in one of our boats to Santara.-The affair was of such a nature that I was unwilling any one should be with me, and so I left my usual companions behind me: the distance was about five miles, and as we neared the villages, we were obliged to pass through a number of merchantmen and small craft that lay at anchor in the little bay or harbour. I was steering our boat, or rather I was seated with the intention of steering her, when my thoughts were so much occupied with my affairs, that I really forgot my steering, until I was called to by my boatmen, and reminded that I was running quite away from the landing place. I immediately perceived that I had run outside, instead of inside the shipping in the harbour, so I at once set the boat's head aright, and steered directly for the wharf where we designed to land-in doing this, it so chanced that it was necessary to pass alongside of the little pirate sloop, that had been captured a few nights before, and was laying there with a guard of soldiers on board, and as we pulled by her, we - could not avoid praising her beautiful

form, so admirably adapted for sailing -one of my men remarked with a laugh, that she was just the vessel he would like to have of his own, and another swore, with a tremendous oath that if she was his property, he would soon turn pirate himself, I merely added, that it must be a fast sailer that could run her down, if she was ably managed; "I wish your honor had her," said Jack Somers, and the wish was soon repeated by the other boatmen, and I said by way of reply, “If I had her, she would not be long laying asleep there, my lads," to which Jack rejoined, with his usual oath, "if you had, Captain, she had never been taken by these black land-lubbers-blow me, if you would not sink her before they should touch her-you'd have given them plenty of canister and grapeyou'd have pistolled every soul of them as fast as they came on deck❞—this led to a conversation among my men, while they pulled their oars, about her powers of sailing, about the best mode of attacking or defending her, and then on the various accounts they had heard of the mode in which she was captured -we soon reached the wharf, and I landed.

"I designed remaining ashore that night, and so dined with a merchant who resided there, and with whom I was on what might be called in such a place, intimate terms: he had commenced life as the agent of a wealthy Spanish house at Cadiz, but, having married a native who possessed some fortune, and many personal attractions, he set up for himself, and as he had acquired a considerable income by trade, he was esteemed at Santara as a man of much affluence and respectability; before I left him and his amiable family for the night, he told me that he expected a number of young people, indeed as many as the place af forded, to a kind of evening party, in a few days, and commissioned me to invite all our officers on the occasion. I knew this would be a very acceptable message to my companions, who were very fond of these parties, as they made them acquainted with the young native girls, many of whom were very beautiful, so I promised at once for their at tendance, and retired. I did not expect my boat next day till late, and so, having some idle hours on my hands, I strolled along the banks of the Rio

Maura. I seated myself at a pleasant spot, and begun to muse on the past and the future-the scene was very beautiful, the river was somewhat confined at the place, and rolled on very rapidly, the woods were very luxuriant along both banks, and the perfume of the verbinia was delicious: on the opposite bank, a short way down the stream, I observed an Indian hut, and just as my eye was resting on it, I saw, to my no small surprise, young George Sampson, our surgeon, coming out of it, he soon perceived me, with as much surprise as my own, and getting into a little canoe belonging to the people of the hut, which was in the stream fastened to the bank, he immediately paddled her over and joined me.

"After mutual greetings, for we had not met for some days, indeed from the day of our visit to the waterfall, we seated ourselves on the bank of the river. We were completely embowered in rich and beautifully blossoming shrubs; along the edge of the water was a profusion of water-plants, the flowers of which bore every colour of the rainbow, as they dipped their heads in the stream, or waved them to and fro in the current; the opposite bank was lined with the richest and thickest foliage of the natural woods, and as the river took a bend at the spot where we were sitting, we had a view up the stream for some distance-it was altogether a very beautiful spot, and had the appearance, and indeed the reality of perfect solitude, so that we felt disposed, by the influence such scenery often has on us, to speak to each other in the most unrestrained way. After a good deal of bantering, and laughing over the circumstances which brought us both to Santara at that time, we talked a good deal also about what had occurred in the hut on the evening of our visit to the waterfalls, this led us to speak of the pirate which Calcraft and Mrs. B, and myself, had seen the same evening; and Sampson, after a short pause in which he seemed to be thinking very intently on something, turned to me and asked, "have you seen her since she came into harbour?" I answered, "Yes-I ran my boat alongside of her yesterday." Upon which he asked, "but were you aboard of her?" I told him I had not gone aboard, and then mentioned the circumstances under which I ran along

side of her. "I wish," he added with great earnestness, "I wish you had gone on board and seen her-she is a beautiful thing!" I said, that I had remarked as we passed her, that she seemed made for fast-sailing, and was so low on the water that it would be no easy matter for a shot to hull her, and that she seemed altogether a very neat and well-trimmed thing of her size, but that I had not examined her with any particular attention, as my mind was otherwise occupied at the time.George Sampson then told me that he had been on board, and that he had never seen any thing like her, that he had learned that she was built at Baltimore during the war, as a privateer, and was famous for her many captures, that she was afterwards sold, at the peace, to a freeman of colour, who had been a mate on board a merchantman; this negro, who had obtained the means of purchasing her through some unknown channel, very soon repaid himself by the most extensive and desperate piracies, among the West Indian islands, and along the coasts of the gulf, and was at last surprised and captured, as already stated, in the harbour of Santara, he concluded his account of her by saying with much earnestness, "Seyton, I wish you had her!" The expression of his countenance and his manner of speaking, struck me, and the thought flashed across my mind that he wished me to seize her and cut her out; I merely said, however, "I wish I had-but we have no means to purchase her-the thing is impossible." Sampson did not perceive that I saw what he was leading to, and so he added plainly, "but if you have not the means to obtain her by purchase, you have the means of obtaining her by force; and who cares for the resentment of the people here, when we are far away on the waves ?" To this I made no answer-for, in truth, it was the sentiment which was passing through my mind at the moment-so he continued, "well, what say you?-there is no man in our company can undertake the enterprise but yourself, and if you will be the leader, you know there is not a man who will not follow you." After a pause, during which I reflected on the proposal, I said, "I have no doubt whatever as to our being able to cut her out-we have done bolder

things; but the difficulty in my mind is, whether it would be worth while to hazard some lives, and to lose the friendship of the people of Santara for her " He said very fairly, that the best way of ascertaining that would be myself going on board and examining her; "for," added he, "in all our voyaging I have never met the ship that would answer you so well;" in saying it would answer me so well, he alluded to a conversation that had passed some time among several of the most enterprising of our party, in which a wish was expressed that we should have a small vessel to ourselves under my command, and he now thought that this little pirate would answer our views. I told him I would think about it, and promised to come ashore next day and bring Calcraft with me, so as to have further conversation on it, and at all events that I would visit it so as to be able to form an opinion on its suitable

ness.

"On my return that afternoon to the Sylph, I mentioned to Calcraft all that had passed between Sampson and myself, and we agreed to go ashore the next day and have another conference with him on the subject; accordingly we landed at Santara, and found him at his favourite place of resort about noon-in a very few minutes we all three were quietly seated in our boat, and steering for the Dolphin. We found her to be a compact and beautiful vessel-rather small for our purpose, but carrying twelve guns; there were arms of every kind in profusion, with more than an adequate supply of ammunition; and the more closely we inspected her, the more were we disposed to acknowledge her to have been admirably adapted for piratical purposes such a circumstance was not likely to make her less useful to us. She had some pirated merchandise and other property on board, but they were of small value, as the money and more precious articles had been removed and landed for safety, and a guard of ten soldiers were placed on board for her security. On leaving her, we rowed direct for the Sylph, and after consulting one or two others, it was resolved that we should cut out the Dolphin, and as I was to have the conduct of the enterprize in all things, I determined to try it on

the night appointed for our meeting at the merchant's evening party.

"At last the moment arrived when our final arrangements were to be made. Our officers appeared on deck in their fullest and gayest uniforms, and some of them had already pushed off for the merchant's house at Santara, the gig was waiting alongside for Calcraft and Sampson and myself. Thus there were ten of us who designed attending the party, and of these there were only five who knew anything of the adventure that awaited us. I then called for Jack Somers, and gave my orders that two boats, well manned and armed should be sent ashore before midnight, and that they should wait for me at a certain place, which I described; it was a spot with which the men were familiar, as they had more than once before been concealed there, by the high rocks that jutted out into the water, from the view of the guards upon the wharf. Jack Somers at once guessed that there was some adventure in preparation, and asked whether he should be particular in the selection of the men? I told him that I should require the best men in the ship, and then charged him to say nothing on the subject until the last moment. I stepped into the gig and made for Santara.

"It was rather late when we arrived. Our seven officers who had preceded us, had arrived a good while before, and as they had informed our hospitable friends that we were coming, the dancing was delayed till we arrived. We found the whole company already assembled, and the apartment presented on the whole a very gay appearance, all our young men entered with all their usual gaiety and life into the spirit of the evening. I took myself but little interest in it, as my mind was otherwise occupied, I felt anxious, indeed much more so than usual, for the result of the adventure which was to follow it, and I felt relieved when the hour for taking leave of our friends had arrived. After our gay officers had disposed of their supply of complements, gentle whispers, promises, and farewells, we retired.

"We immediately communicated the nature of our proposed adventure to those of our party who had not before been apprised of it, and the joyous spirit in which they received it, made us somewhat proud of our enterprise,

so we proceeded at once to the place appointed for the boats to meet us, This was found to be no very easy task, as it was some distance along a rocky beach and the night was one of the darkest I had ever known in the tropics. The darkness, however, though very inconvenient to us at the moment, proved in the event to be of the utmost service, indeed we might have failed without it. On reaching the appointed spot we found Jack Somers and his two boats before us; he had twelve men for each boat, well armed with cutlasses and pistols, and all in high spirits, anxious to learn the nature of the enterprise for which they were assembled. When I told them that we designed to cut out the Dolphin, they could scarcely be restrained from showing their delight in a manner so loud as to expose them to observation from the guardhouse on the wharf; so seating themselves in their boats, they waited in the utmost impatience and eagerness for us to step in and give the word to push off. They were obliged, however, to wait for some time while we held a kind of council of war on the occasion. I had resolved that only four officers should go, two in each boat, and that the others should go back to the wharf and return in their own boat, which was waiting for them, to the Sylph; they were there to make known our enterprise, and have every thing in readiness for sailing that night. As I had to select those who were to accompany me out of the ten, who were all equally anxious, though not all equally prepared, I gave one boat to Calcraft and put Walker under him, and taking the other boat myself, took poor Falkland with me; Sampson pressed me hard to take him, claiming it as having been the first proposer of the adventure, but we all agreed that as our only surgeon, we could not permit him to join

us.

As it was known that there were ten soldiers on board the Dolphin, it was suggested that we would lose some lives before we would succeed unless we could surprise them; but I told them I had anticipated that, and had made an arrangement that I thought likely to secure a surprise. I had desired two of our most convivial and cunning sailors-men whom I knew I could depend on, to visit her in the morning and make an acquaintance with the soldiers of the guard, and

afterwards to go ashore till evening, they were then, after dark, to row towards her again, and manage, by some pretence or another to get on board for the night, taking care to make themselves acceptable to the soldiers by a plentiful supply of rum, by which they could regale them and keep them below, amusing them while we could approach the vessel and surprise her. I was pretty confident of the success of these two men and felt convinced that we would find very few of the soldiers on the deck at our arrival, so, after heartily shaking hands with our brother officers, and saying some honest and friendly things to each other we parted, and after a moment's examination of our pistols, Calcraft and I took to our respective boats, when every thing was in readiness, gave the word, and pulled rapidly from the shore.

"As we neared the Dolphin we observed light in her after-cabin, from which I augured favourably, supposing that our two sailors were there merrymaking with the soldiers of the guard; the result proved that my augury was correct. As not a sound was heard from our boats except the plashing of our oars, which we took care to muffle, we had neared her very closely before we were observed in the deep darkness of the night, and, when at last we were challenged in the usual way, we made no answer, but with a few long and steady strokes of our oars shot alongside of her, Calcraft's boat running on her starboard, while mine ran under her larboard sides. In an instant every man was in the chains, and a fine young fellow named Rogers, who was foremost, received a desperate thrust of a bayonet through the throat from the sentinel on duty; the poor fellow dropped, and striking against the edge of the boat, fell over into the water, and we never saw him afterwards; at the same moment that wary Scotchman, Kennedy, who was with him in the chains, while he held on by one hand, made a tremendous blow with his cutlass at the soldier, the weapon cut through the unfortunate devil's cap, and literally chopped off nearly half his face, he was totally disabled, and fell for dead upon the deck. By this time another of the soldiers had sprung forward to assist his comrade and made a desperate lunge at Falkland, who had just leaped upon the deck, but Falk

land was too cool and watchful at such work to be easily disposed of, and so turning aside the bayonet with his sword, shot him instantly through the head with a pistol which he held in his other hand. All this was the work of an instant, and in the next we were all on board of her. Calcraft and his men had met with no opposition, and so were on deck, if possible, before us, for though there were two other soldiers there, yet the lubbers had negligently laid their arms aside and could not seize them quick enough to resist us: we of course secured them and sprung to the gangway to secure the remaining six, who, as we expected, were drinking and carousing below. This was not so easy a matter as we anticipated, for they were aroused by the noise upon deck and the report of Falkland's pistol; they seized their muskets and rushed up the gangway as our men were preparing to enter, being elated with the spirits they were drinking, and not knowing our superior numbers, they seemed resolved to defend their charge, and as their bayonets were fixed they were certainly a dangerous enemy; several of our men, who had only cutlasses in their hands were wounded in an instant by them, and it was not till two of them were shot and another desperately wounded by a sabre-cut that the others surrendered. Thus after a struggle which certainly did not continue above three minutes, we obtained possession of the Dolphin, with one man killed and several wounded slightly." We at once flung the three black soldiers whom we had killed overboard, and on examining the other two, who were wounded, we found them in so desperate a state that we slung them after them over the ship's side; we placed the remainder of them under guard below.

a

« The most difficult part of our enterprise yet remained, namely, the bringing our prize out of harbour. Our pistols had been heard at the guardhouse on the wharf, and we could see some lights and a good deal of activity going on there, so that we felt that there was some chance of being further opposed before we could fairly accomplish our wishes. This was a source of some uneasiness to us, as we found the utmost difficulty in getting her sails set and saw it would occupy some time before we could accomplish it. There were too few of us to effect this and set everything else in order within any reasonable time, so that if the guard on shore had been expeditious we would have been unable to secure her without at least another fight for her; but as fortune ever favours the bold, our opponents were somewhat slow and cautious in their movements, so that they allowed us a considerable time for our work; we of course were not tardy under such circumstances, and by great exertions on the part of every hand on board, we at last succeeded in getting all matters to rights, made our boats fast, cut her cable, shook out her sails, and with a very light but favourable breeze stood out to sea. As we passed the Sylph our cheers were answered from her deck in the most joyous fashion, our friends on board her were all prepared, heaved anchor, and followed us immediately. So ended the adventure of the Dolphin."

Such was the account that Seyton himself gave me of the manner in which he got possession of the very beautiful sloop which he then commanded, and to which I myself belonged at this time. Our boat shortly afterwards arrived, and we were soon on board.

RENE.