No time was given for deliberation.

We were unceremoniously shoved into the skiff, the painter was cast loose, and a dark, ugly-visaged scoundrel told us, in broken English and with a diabolical grin, to "pull for our lives!" So, indeed, we did.

The pilot-boat was not far off, nevertheless we should have swamped ere we could have reached her had not the captain, with admirable presence of mind, ordered me to lay in my oar, and at the same time handed me his hat, a large one and in tolerable good condition, and pointing to the water in which our legs were immersed, bade me "bale away!" Then placing his oar over the stern of the boat, he sculled off towards the schooner like an excited Hercules! In this way we managed to reach the Young Pilot, and greatly to the amusement of the piratical patriots, scrambled on board in a most undignified manner.

In spite of our exertions the skiff was filled with water when we trod the deck of the schooner.

Mr.Campbell relieved himself of his superfluous garments, and we went busily to work rigging purchases, with which to hoist in the boat we had received in exchange for our own.