My advice was so palpably prudent, that it was instantly followed.
"Valga me Dios!" exclaimed one of our Spanish passengers—"que gente hay abordo—gracias a Dios, que este felucha no puede andar; porque hombre honesto no lo es."—(Heaven help me, what a number of people there are on board—we should be thankful that that felucca can't sail, as she is not honest, that's clear.)
Another shouted out—"Tanto gente—tanto gente!" (Lord what a number of people—what a number of people!)
"People!" exclaimed the skipper, laughing, as he slammed the joints of the glass into each other; "why, it is a deck-load of cattle, or I am a Dutchman. Oh dear—oh dear—why, gentlemen, your courage has all been thrown away—she is some Montego bay trader with a cargo of dyewood, and 'ganado,' as you call them—ha—ha—ha!"
"And so it is," said I, much amused, and not a little rejoiced. "Come, gentlemen, your warlike demonstrations have indeed been thrown away, and I suppose our friend the skipper there may secure his guns when he likes, and keep away on his course again."
This was done, and every thing subsided into its usual quietness, except the jaw of the Dons as to the astonishing feats they never would have performed; for they were all silent enough, and Bob Acreish enough, so long as we had suspicions of the felucca; but every man among them was braver than another the moment they saw that their fears had been groundless. They now all began singing, and shouting, and swaggering about the decks, bristling with pistols and knives, like so many porcupines, while I was taking a careless, and, what I considered, a parting squint at the vessel. When I put my head over the high bulwark, I naturally looked out astern, as we had by this time kept away, and were going along free, in expectation of seeing him still close by the wind; but, to my great surprise, no such thing—the youth although no nearer than before, in place of being by this time in our wake, had kept away also, and was now on our lee-quarter, sailing two knots for one he had been going before, and as if desirous of cutting us off. "I say, skipper, I don't like this manoeuvring on the part of the felucca—she is off the wind again."
"And so she is," said the man.
The Spaniards gathered from our countenances, I suppose, that doubts had again sprung up in our minds as to the character of the vessel, notwithstanding the improbability of a pirate carrying a deck-load of cattle;—so they stopped their exclamations in mid-volley, breaking off their patriotic songs with laughable quickness, and began to bustle with their glasses again.
My original suggestion was once more the order of the day, and after seeing all clear for the second time, the skipper manfully handed his top-gallant sails, hauled up his courses, and took a reef in his topsails. The felucca had now no alternative but to come alongside; so she gradually drew up on our lee-quarter, so that, as the breeze laid her over, we might see as little of her deck as possible. We could now perceive that she had cast off the spar she had been towing astern. Ticklish as our situation had become, my nautical enthusiasm fairly got the better of me, as the little beauty ranged alongside.
"Look, captain—look, man—how blandly she bends before the breeze, as if she would melt into the water like a snowflake, yet she never careens over an inch beyond that mark on her goldbright copper; and how gracefully she always rights again. See what an entry she has—not the smallest surge, or curl of a wave at her bows. Her sharp stem cuts into it as clean as a knife, while there is not one single drop of dead water under the counter. Mortal man never saw a cleaner run—how mildly she skims along, and yet how fast—the very gushes from the rudder swirl and meander away astern mellifluously.—Oh, murder, if the sweet little thing does not slide along as smoothly as if the sea were oil!"