But it is always as well to keep free of them, if one can.

You see, an unlucky shot might knock one of our sticks out of us, which would mean delay and trouble, if no worse.
"We had a sharp brush with two of them, on the last voyage, but we beat them off.

We were stronger then than we are now, for we had two hundred troops on board, and should have astonished them if they had come close enough to try boarding--in fact, we were slackening our fire, to tempt them to do so, when they made out that a large craft coming up astern was an English frigate, and sheered off.
"I don't know what the end of it was, but I rather fancy they were taken.

The frigate followed them, gaining fast; and, later on, we could hear guns in the distance." "You did not join in the chase then, doctor ?" "Oh, no.

Our business is not fighting.