"Of course, you will not have heard of them.

And, fortunately, you are not likely ever to see them on this coast; but if you had remained where you were born, on the other side, you would have heard little else talked of than the doings of these pirates and scoundrels; who scour the seas, defy the authority of his sacred majesty, carry off our treasures under our noses, burn our towns, and keep the whole coast in an uproar." "But," said Ned, in assumed astonishment, "how is it that so great a monarch as the King of Spain, and Emperor of the Indies, does not annihilate these ferocious sea robbers?
Surely so mighty a king could have no difficulty in overcoming them." "They live in an island," the officer said, "and are half fish, half men." "What monsters!" Ned exclaimed.

"Half fish and half men! How then do they walk ?" "Not really; but in their habits.

They are born sailors, and are so ferocious and bloodthirsty that, at sea, they overcome even the soldiers of Spain; who are known," he said, drawing himself up, "to be the bravest in the world.

On land, however, we should teach them a very different lesson; but on the sea it must be owned that, somehow, we are less valiant than on shore." Every day a priest came down to the barracks, and for an hour endeavored to instill the elements of his religion into the minds of the now civilized wild men.