Took in all the studding sails, hauled by the wind, tacked, and fired a shotted gun.

The stranger immediately hove to.

Lowered a boat, and sent a lieutenant on board of him.

Stood on and tacked, and having brought the stranger under my guns, I began to feel sure of him (our smoke stack was down, and we could not have raised steam in less than two hours and a half).

He proved to be the ship Vigilant, of Bath, Maine, bound from New York to the guano island of Sombrero, in ballast.