“By this time we could just make out a dim something towering up in the darkness, which we knew to be her sails. In another minute our boat was alongside on her starboard quarter, and the pinnace on her larboard quarter; we shinned up her low sides, and before the watch on deck could rub their eyelids open, we had her.
“She turned out to be a little Yankee brig, with a cargo of sandalwood, and was bound to Canton.
“Some of her crew joined us, the rest—the poor skipper and the first mate among ’em—was hove overboard, and the sharks had a good meal. She mounted four sixes, and had a well-stocked arm-chest, so that, with the arms we brought with us from the old Amazon, we was pretty well off. We mustered a good strong crew too—twenty-nine altogether, counting the Lascars—so, as the brig was a beautiful model, and, we soon found, sailed like a witch, our skipper decided to set up for a pirate at once.
“Well, gentlemen, it kept stark calm for two whole days after we’d took the brig, and Johnson—that was the Yankee’s name, Edward Johnson—he kept us all busy during that time disguising the craft, by painting the hull and spars afresh, and such like; and the carpenter he was sent over the starn on a stage to fix a plank over the name, on which he’d carved a lot of flourishes and such like, and the word Albatross, which was what Johnson had re-christened her, and by the time we’d finished, her own builder wouldn’t have knowed her.
“After everything was finished to his satisfaction, he calls us all aft, and tells us that he’d been thinking matters over, and he’d decided to take the ship to Hong-Kong, and get rid of the sandalwood there, and get a lot of things that was wanted to complete our outfit, and make us fit for a good long cruise.
“Accordin’ly as soon as the breeze sprang up, away we goes, never falling in with anything as Johnson thought it worth his while to meddle with all the way.
“We had a pretty quick run, for the brig sailed quite wonderful; and all the while I was turning over in my mind how to get away. I intended to take the first chance as offered, as soon as we got in; but Johnson was a ’cute chap, none of us was let out of the ship any more’n he could help, and then only they as he knowed he could trust.
“At last the cargo was out and the ballast in, the brig cleared for the South Pacific, and everything ready for sailing next morning, and I’d had no chance to get away, and I was beginning to think things were looking queer with me. But I didn’t give up all hope, for I knowed a chance might offer at the last minute, if I was but ready to take it.
“Some time during the night I woke up and went on deck for a minute or two, and found it as black as pitch. There wasn’t a soul moving in the ship. I don’t know where the anchor watch was, stowed away asleep somewheres, likely. Anyhow, I thought to myself that now was my chance, so, without waiting another minute, I climbs over the bows, and lets myself quietly down into the water by the cable. As soon as I was adrift, I lets the tide take me, for I was afraid of makin’ so much as a splash whilst I was near the ship. I drifted astern for about five minutes, and then struck out. I hadn’t taken no bearings, and didn’t know where the shore was; but I saw a few lights, and I shaped a course for them.
“But after I’d swam about a matter of twenty minutes I found I was farther away from ’em than I was when I started; and then the thought flashed into my mind that the tide must be on the ebb, and that I was going out to sea. I was so took aback that I went under. But I didn’t feel like giving up without I was obliged; so I struggled to the top of the water again, and then turned over on my back to think matters over a bit. But I didn’t find much encouragement that way; and I was beginning to think it was all up with me—’specially as I was getting pretty tired—when I heard a sound some distance away, like a coil of rope hove down on deck.