The man was still fumbling with the flare when the stranger, which was now about half a mile distant, suddenly exhibited a lantern over her bows, which her people continued to show until we had lighted our second flare, when the lantern at once disappeared. A couple of minutes later she was near enough for us to be able to make her out as a full-rigged ship of some seven hundred tons; and presently she swept grandly across our bows, at a distance of about a cable’s-length, and, putting her helm down, came to the wind, with her main-topsail to the mast, finally coming to rest within biscuit-toss of us to windward.
As she did so we became aware of a man standing on her poop, just abaft the mizzen rigging, and the next moment a hail through a speaking-trumpet came pealing across the water.
“Ho, the boats ahoy! What boats are those?”
“We are the boats of the slaver Dolores, captured by the British sloop-of-war Shark, and subsequently attacked and destroyed by a pirate,” replied I. “We have been in the boats nearly thirty hours, and several of our people are wounded. We hoped to make our way to Sierra Leone, but narrowly escaped being swamped in a gale last night. I presume you will have no objection to receive us?”
The ship being apparently British, I naturally expected to receive an immediate and cordial invitation to go on board; but, to my intense surprise, and growing indignation, there ensued a period of silence as though the man who had hailed us was considering the matter. I was just about to hail again when the individual seemed to arrive at a decision; for he hailed:
“All right; bring your boats alongside.”
We accordingly dowsed the sails, threw out our oars, and pulled alongside.
As we approached the lee gangway, which had been thrown open to receive us, and about which some half a dozen men were clustered, with lighted lanterns, the man who had hailed us before enquired:
“Will your wounded be able to come up the side; or shall I reeve a whip with a boatswain’s-chair for them?”
“Thanks,” I replied, “I think we may be able to manage, if your people will lend us a hand.”