On hailing to ask her name, an answer came back that it was the _Victory_.

Brown preferred to believe that it was his own ship of that name; but his answering hail, giving the name of the _London_, was replied to with a broadside, to which a smart fire was returned by the _Revenge_ and the _Defiance_, that were close astern.

On both sides there was no willingness to fight.

The pirates were at first seized with consternation at discovering their mistake; they had turned their prizes adrift after throwing their sails overboard, and, with only three hundred men for their joint crews, forty of them negroes, were not strong enough to engage the Bombay squadron.

But England was a man who preferred fighting to running, so putting a bold face on the matter, the _Cassandra_ ran through the fleet, firing into the _Victory_, the _Chandos_, and the _Phram_.