The fact that all the men who had been aloft were saved, without even so much as a scratch, was brought forward by Simon, whenever the crew would condescend to listen to him, as a good reason why we should look upon the matter as one of good rather than bad significance, but day by day the mutinous talk grew louder.
The topmast had been carried away on the eleventh day of September, and not until the twenty-third of the same month did we fall in with a craft of any description.
The absence of vessels when we were in the track of the enemy’s merchant-ships was, to this superstitious crew, only additional proof that they were correct in their fancies.
The sun was just showing himself above the horizon on the day last mentioned, when the lookout shouted what, under different circumstances, would have been most welcome news.
A craft of some description was in sight; but so far away that it was impossible to make out anything save what, to Simon and I, looked like nothing more than the wing of a sea-bird outlined against the clear sky to leeward.
Certain it is the men would have grumbled had our ship’s course not been altered on the instant, and then, when this was done, even before the captain knew what kind of a craft he was steering for, every man Jack of them began making the most dismal predictions.
Now we were to learn the meaning of the omen, the men said, walking moodily to and fro as if certain that death was very close aboard. We would find the stranger an English frigate, at the very least, and the cruise of the America as an American vessel would come to an end before sunset.
I believe of a verity that, had we fallen in with a Britisher who carried no greater weight of metal than ourselves, these predictions would have come true, so dispirited were the crew, and while we slowly drew nearer the strange sail, Simon and I stood well forward, burning with the most painful anxiety, fancying we were approaching some terrible doom.
Before two hours had passed, such a lady for sailing was the ship, we could see clearly the topsails of the chase, and the most outspoken grumbler among us declared that she was nothing more formidable than a British merchant-brig.
The majority of the crew began to recover their courage and their spirits; but a few of the older shellbacks insisted that, whether the stranger was a peaceful merchantman or a heavily armed privateer, we were about to learn the true meaning of the omen.