seemed to pronounce my name--at least so I thought at the time, and
others thought so too. The next moment he appeared quite dead. No less
than three boats had been in the water alongside when the accident
happend, and they were all on the spot by this time. And there was the
bleeding and mangled boy, torn along the surface of the water by the
shark, with the boats in pursuit, leaving a long stream of blood,
mottled with white specks of fat and marrow in his wake. At length the
man in the bow of the gig laid hold of him by the arm, another sailor
caught the other arm, boat-hooks and oars were dug into and launched at
the monster, who relinquished his prey at last, stripping off the flesh,
however, from the upper part of the right thigh, until his teeth reached
the knee, where he nipped the shank clean off, and made sail with the
leg in his jaws. Poor little Louis never once moved after we took him
in.--I thought I heard a small, still, stern voice thrill along my
nerves, as if an echo of the beating of my heart had become articulate.
"Thomas, a fortnight ago, you impressed that poor boy, who _was_,
and _now is not_, out of a Bristol ship." Alas, conscience spoke no
more than the truth.

Our instructions were to lie at St. Jago, until three British ships,
then loading, were ready for sea, and then to convey them through the
Caicos, or windward passage. As our stay was therefore likely to be ten
days or a fortnight at the shortest, the boats were hoisted out, and
we made our little arrangements and preparations for taking all the
recreation in our power, and our worthy skipper, taught and stiff as he
was at sea, always encouraged all kinds of fun and larking, both amongst
the men and the officers on occasions like the present. Amongst his
other pleasant qualities, he was a great boat-racer, constantly building
and altering gigs, and pulling-boats, at his own expense, and matching
the men against each other for small prizes. He had just finished