“Has he confessed?” shouted the captain to us as we were approaching.
We replied in the negative.
“Then shoot him down like a dog.”
Two of the robbers seized him, one presented a pistol to his forehead, another to his breast; they were both discharged at the same moment, and the unhappy man was bathed in his own blood. As he gave no further sign of life, they hurled him overboard.
What a deed of horror! I passed a fearful night, for I could not close my eyes when I thought of the probable fate that awaited me among these miscreants.
III.
The next morning I went sadly enough to my labor, which consisted in cutting and making a new sail, when at about ten o’clock, the watch at the mast-head, cried out:
“A sail! a sail!”
I went aloft, and saw that it was a large merchant vessel. The captain weighed anchor, sailed down upon her and when he supposed himself sure of his prey, fired off a cannon; the brig hoisted the English flag and lay to. This unexpected manœuvre seemed very suspicious to the captain; he began to believe that he had to deal with a man-of-war; changed his plan, and determined upon boarding the strange vessel; he gave orders to have two boats manned with the bravest of his crew, which should attack the ship upon both sides at once, and commanded me to head the expedition. Such an order terrified me not a little.