He appeared to believe that we had indeed saved the ship from being captured by the prisoners, and declared that when the prize-money was distributed our shares should be the same as those of the gunners.
There were many other promises given by him voluntarily; but I do not propose to set them down here, for they were all made good when we sailed aboard the America on her second cruise, and that yarn shall be spun at some future time if I decide to put in writing, for the pleasure of Simon Ropes and myself, all which befell us then.
It is enough now if I say it was the captain’s orders that we two lads live aft during the homeward voyage, and right well did we enjoy ourselves when our wounds were so far healed that they ceased to give us pain.
We often indulged in a chat with Master Joshua; but neither of us ever broached the subject of omens, and I observed with no slight amusement that he claimed to have known from the moment we weighed anchor in Salem Harbour that our cruise would be most prosperous.
And it was prosperous; we had taken five rich prizes in a few over one hundred days, which was more than the majority of privateersmen could say.
Every man Jack of us would have dollars in plenty once the captured vessels were sold, and, what was far better, could say with good truth that we had done even more than our share in inflicting injury upon the enemy.
We talked all these things over while the America was driven swiftly by favouring winds toward the Massachusetts coast, never dreaming but that we had come to an end of taking prizes until after going ashore at Salem.
Therefore it was we were almost astonished when, the voyage being more than half completed, the lookouts announced that a sail was in sight, and the information was given in a tone which told plainly the belief of the men that another Britisher was within our grasp.
It was on the sixteenth day of December, when we were near the Western Islands, that this sail came in view from the southeast.
We in the cabin were making a long story of breakfast as a means of passing the time, when the lookout hailed, and he who has ever served on a privateer knows full well the excitement which was immediately after apparent on our decks.