Then I instructed Haines to maintain the utmost vigilance, as there was a plot to capture the schooner; but he must not let the prisoners know that anything was suspected.
"Ay, ay, sir!" said the old sailor, as he went away to execute his orders. I felt that it could be safely said that there was little opportunity for our prisoners to carry out their scheme as long as they were on board the Marguerite and Haines was looking after them.
A little past noon a sail was reported on the lee bow. We changed our course at once, and ran down to her. She did not try to get away from us, and her captain was very much surprised when he found out that there was war between Great Britain and the United States. He had believed that it was impossible to "kick the Yankees into war;" they had endured so many insults at the hands of the British, he thought they would go on the same way forever.
"You know the old adage about the last straw that breaks the camel's back, do you not?" I asked, when he paused.
"Certainly I do," he answered; "and I suppose you found the last straw before you made up your minds to fight. Great Britain would not have endured for a day what you've been putting up with for years; and I've heard English officers say so more than once. But do you think this privateering business is right?"
"Of course I do, or I wouldn't be in it."
"I don't think it right," he answered, "and I'll tell you why. It is nothing more than piracy, and all captures ought to be made by regular ships-of-war. That's my opinion."
"What difference does it make," I retorted, "whether your vessel is a prize to a seventy-four-gun man-of-war, or a privateer like this? You lose it in either case, and that's all there is about it. Armies are formed of, and navies are manned by, individuals; and what difference does it make as to their way of fighting, as long as they fight? Peace is brought about by the distress of the people of the nations at war, and a nation is made up of individuals, no matter whether it be a republic or a kingdom. My idea is, that when two commercial countries are at war, they should give every encouragement to private parties to capture as many of the enemy's ships as possible, and bring the war to an end much sooner."
"That may be all right from your point of view," he answered, "but it isn't from mine. Great Britain has more than a thousand ships-of-war in her navy, and you haven't more than twenty. It costs our nation a vast deal of money to keep a thousand ships in service, and this privateering doesn't cost your government anything. You keep a navy of no account whatever in time of peace, but when war comes you turn every mud-scow into a privateer, and send her out to capture British ships. I insist that it isn't fair!"