In two minutes every man had been cut down or disarmed.

I had laid about me with a cutlass till I got a lick over my head with a boarding pike which knocked my senses out of me.
"When I opened my eyes I was hauled up to my feet and put alongside the mate and six others, all of whom was bleeding more or less.

The rest had all been chucked overboard at once.

In a minute or two the captain of one of the pirates, a little dapper Frenchman, came up to us.

'You have fought your ship well,' he said to the mate, 'and have killed several of my officers and men; but I bear you no malice, and if you are ready to ship with me I will spare your life.' 'I would rather die a hundred times!' the mate said.