The officers cheered faintly: the captain's dogged resolution stirred up
theirs. . . .


"Shorten sail to the taupsles and jib, get the colors ready on the
halyards, and then send the men aft. . . ."


Sail was no sooner shortened, and the crew ranged, than the captain came
briskly on deck, saluted, jumped on a carronade, and stood erect. He was
not the man to show the crew his forebodings.

(Pipe.) "Silence fore and aft."

"My men, the schooner coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese
pirate. His character is known; he scuttles all the ships he boards,
dishonors the women, and murders the crew. We cracked on to get out of
the narrows, and now we have shortened sail to fight this blackguard, and
teach him not to molest a British ship. I promise, in the Company's
name, twenty pounds prize money to every man before the mast if we beat
him off or out manoeuvre him; thirty if we sink him; and forty if we tow
him astern into a friendly port. Eight guns are clear below, three on
the weather side, five on the lee; for, if he knows his business, he will
come up on the lee quarter: if he doesn't, that is no fault of yours nor
mine. The muskets are all loaded, the cutlasses ground like razors--"

"Hurrah!"

"We have got women to defend--"