due, fought very briskly, believing at first they were sure oftheir game, and trusting to their superiority; but there was William, ascomposed, and in as perfect tranquillity as to danger, as if he had beenover a bowl of punch, only very busy securing the matter, that a ship offorty-six guns should not run away from a ship of eight-and-twenty.
This work was too hot to hold long; our men behaved bravely: our gunner,a gallant man, shouted below, pouring in his shot at such a rate, thatthe Portuguese began to slacken their fire; we had dismounted several oftheir guns by firing in at their forecastle, and raking them, as I said,fore and aft. Presently comes William up to me. "Friend," says he, verycalmly, "what dost thou mean? Why dost thou not visit thy neighbour inthe ship, the door being open for thee?" I understood him immediately,for our guns had so torn their hull, that we had beat two port-holesinto one, and the bulk-head of their steerage was split to pieces, sothat they could not retire to their close quarters; so I gave the wordimmediately to board them. Our second lieutenant, with about thirty men,entered in an instant over the forecastle, followed by some more withthe boatswain, and cutting in pieces about twenty-five men that theyfound upon the deck, and then throwing some grenadoes into the steerage,they entered there also; upon which the Portuguese cried quarterpresently, and we mastered the ship, contrary indeed to our ownexpectation; for we would have compounded with them if they would havesheered off: but laying them athwart the hawse at first, and followingour fire furiously, without giving them any time to get clear of us andwork their ship; by this means, though they had six-and-forty guns, theywere not able to fight above five or six, as I said above, for we beatthem immediately from their guns in the forecastle, and killed themabundance of men between decks, so that when we entered they had hardlyfound men enough to fight us hand to hand upon their deck.
The surprise of joy to hear the Portuguese cry quarter, and see theirancient struck, was so great to our captain, who, as I have said, wasreduced very weak with a high fever, that it gave him new life. Natureconquered the distemper, and the fever abated that very night; so thatin two or three days he was sensibly better, his strength began to come,and he was able to give his orders effectually in everything that wasmaterial, and in about ten days was entirely well and about the ship.
In the meantime I took possession of the Portuguese man-of-war; andCaptain Wilmot made me, or rather I made myself, captain of her forthe present. About thirty of their seamen took service with us, some ofwhich were French, some Genoese; and we set the rest on shore the nextday on a little island on the coast of Brazil, except some wounded men,who were not in a condition to be removed, and whom we were bound tokeep on board; but we had an occasion afterwards to dispose of them atthe Cape, where, at their own request, we set them on shore.
Captain Wilmot, as soon as the ship was taken, and the prisoners stowed,was for standing in for the river Janeiro again, not doubting but weshould meet with the other man-of-war, who, not having been able tofind us, and having lost the company of her comrade, would certainly bereturned, and might be surprised by the ship we had taken, if we carriedPortuguese colours; and our men were all for it.
But our friend William gave us better counsel, for he came to me,"Friend," says he, "I understand the captain is for sailing back to theRio Janeiro, in hopes to meet with the other ship that was in chase ofthee yesterday. Is it true, dost thou intend it?" "Why, yes," says I,"William, pray why not?" "Nay," says he, "thou mayest do so if thouwilt." "Well, I know that too, William," said I, "but the captain is aman will be ruled by reason; what have you to say to it?" "Why," saysWilliam gravely, "I only ask what is thy business, and the businessof all the people thou hast with thee? Is it not to get money?" "Yes,William, it is so, in our honest way." "And wouldest thou," says he,"rather have money without fighting, or fighting without money? I meanwhich wouldest thou have by choice, suppose it to be left to thee?" "OWilliam," says I, "the first of the two, to be sure." "Why, then," sayshe, "what great gain hast thou made of the prize thou hast taken now,though it has cost the lives of thirteen of thy men, besides some hurt?It is true thou hast got the ship and some prisoners; but thou wouldesthave had twice the booty in a merchant-ship, with not one quarter of thefighting; and how dost thou know either what force or what number ofmen may be in the other ship, and what loss thou mayest suffer, and whatgain it shall be to thee if thou take her? I think, indeed, thou mayestmuch better let her alone."
"Why, William, it is true," said I, "and I'll go tell the captain whatyour opinion is, and bring you word what he says." Accordingly in I wentto the captain and told him William's reasons; and the captain was ofhis mind, that our business was indeed fighting when we could not helpit, but that our main affair was money, and that with as few blows as wecould. So that adventure was laid aside, and we stood along shore againsouth for the river De la Plata, expecting some purchase thereabouts;especially we had our eyes upon some of the Spanish ships from BuenosAyres, which are generally very rich in silver, and one such prize wouldhave done our business. We plied about here, in the latitude of ----south, for near a month, and nothing offered; and here we began toconsult what we should do next, for we had come to no resolution yet.Indeed, my design was always for the Cape de Bona Speranza, and so tothe East Indies. I had heard some flaming stories of Captain Avery,and the fine things he had done in the Indies, which were doubled anddoubled, even ten thousand fold; and from taking a great prize inthe Bay of Bengal, where he took a lady, said to be the Great Mogul'sdaughter, with a great quantity of jewels about her, we had a story toldus, that he took a Mogul ship, so the foolish sailors called it, ladenwith diamonds.
I would fain have had friend William's advice whither we should go, buthe always put it off with some quaking quibble or other. In short,he did not care for directing us neither; whether he made a piece ofconscience of it, or whether he did not care to venture having it comeagainst him afterwards or no, this I know not; but we concluded at lastwithout him.
We were, however, pretty long in resolving, and hankered about the Riode la Plata a long time. At last we spied a sail to windward, and it wassuch a sail as I believe had not been seen in that part of the world agreat while. It wanted not that we should give it chase, for it stooddirectly towards us, as well as they that steered could make it; andeven that was more accident of weather than anything else, for if thewind had chopped about anywhere they must have gone with it. I leave anyman that is a sailor, or understands anything of a ship, to judge whata figure this ship made when we first saw her, and what we could imaginewas the matter with her. Her maintop-mast was come by the boardabout six foot above the cap, and fell forward, the head of thetopgallant-mast hanging in the fore-shrouds by the stay; at the sametime the parrel of the mizzen-topsail-yard by some accident giving way,the mizzen-topsail-braces (the standing part of which being fast to themain-topsail shrouds) brought the mizzen-topsail, yard and all, downwith it, which spread over part of the quarter-deck like an awning; thefore-topsail was hoisted up two-thirds of the mast, but the sheets wereflown; the fore-yard was lowered down upon the forecastle, the sailloose, and part of it hanging overboard. In this manner she came downupon us with the wind quartering. In a word, the figure the whole shipmade was the most confounding to men that understood the sea that everwas seen. She had no boat, neither had she any colours out.
When we came near to her, we fired a gun to bring her to. She took nonotice of it, nor of us, but came on just as she did before. We firedagain, but it was all one. At length we came within pistol-shot of oneanother, but nobody answered nor appeared; so we began to think thatit was a ship gone ashore somewhere in distress, and the men havingforsaken her, the high tide had floated her off to sea. Coming nearerto her, we ran up alongside of her so close that we could hear a noisewithin her, and see the motion of several people through her ports.
Upon this we manned out two boats full of men, and very well armed, andordered them to board her at the same minute, as near as they could, andto enter one at her fore-chains on the one side, and
the other amidshipson the other side. As soon as they came to the ship's side, a surprisingmultitude of black sailors, such as they were, appeared upon deck, and,in short, terrified our men so much that the boat which was to enter hermen in the waist stood off again, and durst not board her; and the menthat entered out of the other boat, finding the first boat, as theythought, beaten off, and seeing the ship full of men, jumped all backagain into their boat, and put off, not knowing what the matter was.Upon this we prepared to pour in a broadside upon her; but our friendWilliam set us to rights again here; for it seems he guessed how it wassooner than we did, and coming up to me (for it was our ship that cameup with her), "Friend," says he, "I am of opinion that thou art wrongin this matter, and