Meanwhile the Golden Hope was put on her former course, or nearly so, for in the pursuit and action--though the latter lasted but a minute at the outside--we had drifted to within a dangerous distance of the shore, where the surf was licking the face of the frowning cliff towards which the Algerine was rapidly being carried.
We could clearly discern the last of the villainous but unfortunate vessel. With her foremast shot away she was helpless, in spite of frantic efforts to row her seaward. As fast as the heavy sweeps were shipped they were shattered by the irresistible force of the waves, till, midst a turmoil of foam, the doomed ship struck the cliff.
"The Deadman[2] has claimed another toll," shouted Captain Jeremy in my ear. "Yon's one of the worst parts of the Cornish coast, and should a single man of her crew reach the land, he'll meet with short shrift at the hands of the wreckers and smugglers."
I had escaped my first experience of being under fire, somewhat to my regret, now that the affair was over, for I had a presentiment that 'twas but putting off the evil day. Yet I had gained some knowledge of how Englishmen behave in times of danger, and that knowledge was of no mean value.
Four hours later the Golden Hope rounded the Lizard, and in a now rapidly subsiding sea entered the vast expanse of the Atlantic Ocean.
Well before sunset I saw the lofty cliffs disappear beneath the horizon, and that was my last sight of Old England for many a long day.
[1] During the seventeenth and even well into the eighteenth century occasional raids by Algerine corsairs upon the shipping in the Channel were reported. In the Naval Chronicle for 1807 a letter from one naval officer to another is given, under date of 1743. He describes the wreck of a disabled Algerine off Land's End, pouring out a whole torrent of abusive sarcasm upon the authorities of Falmouth for sending "pork to feed the Mussulmans, being contrary to their religion".
[2] The Dodman, a precipitous headland on the South Cornish coast, between Fowey and Falmouth, is even now familiarly named "The Deadman" by seamen. The most notable wrecks there in recent years were those of the Thresher and the Lynx in 1897.