“Well,” said I, “you have been very kind in this:  what shall I do for you to make you amends?”—­“Sir,” says he, “you may not be so willing to make me amends, because you may not be convinced of the truth of it:  I will make an offer to you; I have nineteen months pay due to me on board the ship ——­, which I came out of England in; and the Dutchman, that is with me, has seven months pay due to him; if you will make good our pay to us, we will go along with you:  if you find nothing more in it, we will desire no more; but if we do convince you, that we have saved your life, and the ship, and the lives of all the men in her, we will leave the rest to you.”

I consented to this readily; and went immediately on board, and the two men with me.  As soon as I came to the ship’s side, my partner, who was on board, came on the quarter-deck, and called to me with a great deal of joy, “O ho!  O ho! we have stopped the leak!”—­“Say you so?” said I; “thank God; but weigh the anchor then immediately.”—­“Weigh!” says he; “what do you mean by that?  What is the matter?” says he.  “Ask no questions,” said I, “but all hands to work, and weigh without losing a minute.”  He was surprised:  but, however, he called the captain, and he immediately ordered the anchor to be got up; and though the tide was not quite done, yet a little land breeze blowing, we stood out to sea; then I called him into the cabin, and told him the story at large; and we called in the men, and they told us the rest of it:  but as it took us up a great deal of time, so before we had done, a seaman comes to the cabin door, and calls out to us, that the captain made him tell us, we were chased.  “Chased!” said I; “by whom, and by what?”—­“By five sloops, or boats,” said the fellow, “full of men.”—­“Very well,” said I; “then it is apparent there is something in it.”  In the next place, I ordered all our men to be called up; and told them, that there was a design to seize the ship, and to take us for pirates; and asked them, if they would stand by us, and by one another?  The men answered, cheerfully, one and all, that they would live and die with us.  Then I asked the captain, what way he thought best for us to manage a fight with them; for resist them I resolved we would, and that to the last drop.  He said, readily, that the way was to keep them off with our great shot, as long as we could, and then to fire at them with our small arms, to keep them from boarding us; but when neither of these would do any longer, we should retire to our close quarters; perhaps they had not materials to break open our bulk-heads, or get in upon us.

The gunner had, in the mean time, orders to bring two guns to bear fore and aft, out of the steerage, to clear the deck, and load them with musket-bullets and small pieces of old iron, and what next came to hand; and thus we made ready for fight; but all this while kept out to sea, with wind enough, and could see the boats at a distance, being five large long-boats following us, with all the sail they could make.