THE PIRATE AND THE INDIAMAN. (FROM "ALL THE YEAR ROUND.")

Daily Southern Cross, Volume XIX, Issue 1954, 21 October 1863, Page 4

THE PIRATE AND THE INDIAMAN. (FROM "ALL THE YEAR ROUND." )

Tins way Uio pirato dropped tio ma.Mk , • showed lii« lilaok teeth, iiud boie lip 'to the chase, was ie'mlilo :So dilates anil bounds the sudden tiger on his unwary ijiey. Thmo wore stout heait? among tho officers o£ .th'j Agra ; but danger in a new foua shakes tlio biave ; iviiil this was their fiiflt pirate 1 : their dismay broko out In ejaculation.'! 'not loud hut deep. " Hush !" laid Dodd, doggedly ; " tho lady !" Mis. Beiesfoid liad just coma on deck to enjoy tho balmy morning. "Sharpe," said Dodd in a tone that conveyed no suspicion to the now comer, "set the loyals ami flying jib. Pott !" "Port it in," cried the man nt the helm. "Steer due' south !" And with theso words m his mou tli, Dodd dived to the i^un-. lec.lt. By this time elastio Sharpe had recovered the first shock ; and the older to crowd sail on the ship galled his pildo ami hid manhood ; lie muttoicd indignantly, " the white feather." This eased his mind, and lie obeyed orders as lutakly as over. While ho and his hands were Hotting every rag tho ship could carry on that tack, the other officeia, having unluckily no ordew to execute, stood gloomy ami helpless, with their eyes glued, by a sort of sombre facination, on that coming fute : and they literally jumped and juried, when Mis Beresfoid, her he(trt opened by the lovely day, broke on their nerves with her light tieble, "What a sweet morning, gentlemen. After all a voyage is a delightful thing; oh, what a splendid sea ! and the very breeze is warm. Ah, and there's a little ship sailing along ; here, Fieddy, Freddy darling, leave off beating the sailois' legs, and come and sco this pretty ship. "What a pity is so far off. Ah ■ what is that dreadful noise." For her horrible small talk, that grated on those anxious souls like the mockoiy of some infantine fiend, was cut short by pondei ou* blows and tieinendous smashing below. It was tho captain staving in water casks : the water poured out at the scuppois. " Clearing the lee guns," said a middy, oft' his guard. C'jlonel Kenealy pricked up his ears, drew his cigar from his mouth, and smelt powder. " What, for action ?" said he briskly. " Wheio'a the enemy ?" FulLilove made him a signal, and they wont below. Mis. Bcicbford had not heaid, or not appieeiatal the romaik ; she prattled on till she made the males .and midshipmen shudder. Realise situation, and the strange incongiuity between tho senses and the mind in thebe poor fellows 1 Tho day had ripened its beauty ; benoath the purple heaven shone, sparkled, and laughed, n bluobea, in whose waves the tiopiual sun seemed tohavu fused its beams ; and benoath that fair, sinless, peaceful sky, wafted by a balmy biee/e over those smiling, transparent golden waves, a blood- thh»ty puatc boie down on them with a ciew of human tigeis ; and a lady babble babble babble babble babble babblb babble babble in their quiveiing eai3. But now the captain came bustl'ng on deck, eyed tho loftier sails, saw they weie dinning well, appointed four .midshipmen nb a staff to convey hi» ordeii ; gave Bayliss ehaigo ol the cauonades, Grey of the cutlasses, and duueted Mr. 'lickell to break tho bad news to Mis Beiesford, and to take her below to the oilop deck ; ordeied the puiser to solve out beef, biscuit, and £pog to all hand", saying, " men can't wotk on empty stomachs, and lighting is h.iul woik;" then beckoned the ofliooi-> to come lound him. "Gentlemen," said he confidentially, "in ciowdwg sail on this ship, I had no hope of escaping that fellow on this tack, but I was, and .am, most aiu.ious to g.yin tho open sea, whoro I can square my yauls and inn for it, if I see n chance. A/-, picsent f pliall cany on until lit comes up within ran-^e ; and then to keep the Company's canvas from Oeing shofc to rags, I shall shoi ten sail ; ami to save "Unp and cargo and all our lives J shall fight while a plank of her swims. Better he killed in hot blood than walk the plank in cold." Tin officers cheqied fniullv ; the captain's dogged resolutioi si it red up theirs. The pirate had gained anothei quarter of a mi>e and tnoie. The ship's crew were hard at their beef: and gi<>g, and agreed among them seives it was a, comfortable ship; they gin ssed what was coining, and woo to the ship in that hour if tin captain hail not won thoir lespect ! Stiange to say, there were two gentlemen in the ' Agra ' to whom th< pii ale's approach was not altogether unwelcome Colonel ICcnealey and Mr. Fullalove weie rival spoits men and lival theorist 0 . Kencaley stood out foi smooth boie and a foul -ounce lull ; Fullalove for i lifle of his own construction. Many a doughty aiguluenfc they had and many a blagging in itch ; nuithei converted the other. At List Full,vlo\e hinted that b) going ashoie at the C<vpu, and getting each behind . tree at one hundied yauls and popping atone another, one or other would be convinced. "Well, but," baui Kenealey, '• if ho is dead be will be no wiser ; besides to a fellow like me, who has had the luvmy ol popping at his enemies, popping nt a fiiend is pool iiibipid woik." "That is tsue," said the other re gietfully; "but f reckon we shall never sottli it by aigument. " Theousts aie amazing ciea tmes ; and it is plain, by tho alacrity with whicl these good creatures loaded the rival instalments that to them the pirate camo not so much as ( pirate as a solution. Indeed Kenealy, in the act o chargfng his piece, was heard to mutter, "Now, tinis lucky." However these theorists weie aio soonei loaded' than something occurred to them more serious, They were sent for in lia-ste to Dodd's cabin ; thej found him giving Shaipe ft new order. "Shorten fiai to the top-sails and jib, tret the colois ready on th< halyards, and then send the men aft !" Sbarpe lan ou full of zeal and tumbled over Jtamgolan, who wa 1 stooping lemaikably near the keyhole. Dodd hastdj bolted the cabin door, and looked with trembling li[ and piteous earnestness in ICenealy's faco aud Fulki love's. They weie mute with suipiise at a gaze s< eloquent yet mysteiious. He manned himself, am opened his mind to them with deep emotion, yet no without a certain simple dignity. " Colonel" said he "you wo an old fiiend; you, sir arc a new one ; but I esteem you highly, and what my yoini( gentlemen chaff you about, jou calling .all men bio thorn, and making that poor negio lo\o you, instem of fear you, that shows mo you have a gieat heait My dearfiiends, I have been unlucky enough to brim my childien'b fortune on board this phip : hcie it is 'under my shirt. Fouiteen thousand pounds! Thi' weighs uio down. Oh, if they should lose it after all Do pray givo me a hand apiece, and pledge your saciec woids to take it homo safe to my wife at Barkington if you, or either of you, should see thin bught sun se to-day, and I should not. 1 ' " Why Dodd, old fellow,' saiil ICeanealy, cheerfully, " this is not the way to g( into action," "Colonel," leplied Dodd, "to save thii ship and caigo, I must be wherever tho bullets aie and I will too." Fullalove, inoio sagacious than tin wot thy colonel, said earnestly, " Captain Dodd, may j nover see Broadway again, and novel bee heaven at tin end of my time, if I fail you ! Theie's my hand.' "And mine," said Keancnly, waimly. They nil threi joined haiuli, and Dodd seemed to cling to them, "God bless you both; God bless you' Oh, whaa weight your tine Lands have pulled off 1113 heart. Good byo, for a few minutes. The Uiik was shoit. I'll just offer a pi ay or to the Al mighty for wi&dom, and then I'll come up and saj a word to the men, and fight tho ship, accouling t( my lights." Sail was no sooner shortened, and tin ciow rr.ngod, than tho captain camo biixkly on deck, sulutod, jumped on a eanonade, and fctooel elect, lit was not a man to shew the eiew his forebodings, (Pipe ) " Silence fore and aft. My men, tho schoonoi coming up on our weather quarter is a Portuguese pirate. Ilischai.acteris known; he scuttles all the ship! he boards, dishonours tho women, and murders the ciew. Wo ciackod on to get out off the nam'nvs, nml now we have shortened sail to fight this blackgaurd, and teach him to molest a British ship. I piomise, in the company's name, twenty pounds prize money to evoi v man bofoie the mast if we bsat him off or out-man-ceuvro him; thiily if we sink him ; and forty it we tow him astern into a fiiendly poit. Eight guns aie clear below, tluee on the woatherside, five on tho lee ; for, if he knows his business he will come up on the lee quarter ; if he doesn't, that is no fault of yoius or mine. Tho muskets aro all loaded, the cutlasses ground liko razoig " "Huirah?" "Wo ha.ye got women to defend " "Himah! "A good ship under our feet, the God of justice over our Leads, British hearts in our bosoms, and Biitish colours flying— run'em up lover our heads." (The the crippled pirate's stern within eighty yards ; and soio was tho temptation to rako htm ; but his ammunition being sliorb, aud his danger being imminonfc from the otlior pirato, ho Lad the self-command to resist the great temptation. The pirales. though in gieat confusion, and expecting a broadside, trained a gun dead aft. Dodd saw and hailed the mizen top. " Can you two hinder them from firing that gun?" "i rather think wecan," said Fullalove, "eh, colonel !" and tapped his long rifle. Tho ship's bows no sooner crossed the schooner's than a Malay ran aft with a linstock. Pop went tho colonel's icady carbine, and the Malay fell over dead, and tho linstock flow out of his hand. A tall Portuguese, with a movement of rage, snatched it np and darted to tho qtiu : tho Yankees riflo cracked, but a moment too lato. Bang ! went tho pirate's gun, and crashed into tlio Agra's side, and passed noaily through her. "Ye missed him ! ye missed him !" cried tho rival

theeu Ist' joyfully. .Ho was, mistaken ; ,tbe smoke cleared, till A there was *the pirate captain 4 leaning wnmuloil against the mainmast wiLli a Ynnkuo bul lob 111 Ins bhouklcr, and his crow uttering yells of dismay and vengeance Tlioy jumped, and raged, and blandished their kuives, and inado horrid gesticulations of revenge ; and tlio white eyeballs of the Malays and Papuans glittered' fiendishly; and the .Wounded captain raised bis sound aim and had a signal to his consent, and she boro u|> in chase, and jamming her foio laliuc flat as a board, lay fai nearer the wilid than the Agia could, and .sailed threo feet to her two beside-). On this '.upoiioiity boing made clear, the situation of tho merchant vessel, though not so utterly despeiale as hefnto Monk fiied bis lucky shot, become pitiable enough. If hlio ran bcfoi'o the wind, tho fiesh pirate would cut her oft"; if she lay to windwaid, fhe might po&tpono the inevitable and fatal collision with .1 foe as strong as that hho had only ftvmped by n rare piece of luck ; but this would give the crippled pirate time to refit and unite to destroy her. Add to this the failing nmunihon, and the thinned ciow ! Dodd cast his pyes all around tho horizon for help. The sea was blank. The blight him was hidden now; drops of rain foil, ship's colors flew up to the foiu, and the Union Jack to the mi/.en peak.) "Now lads, I mean to fight the ship while tv plank of her (stamping on the deck) swims beneath my foot, and— what do you Hay ?" The reply was a fierce "hurrah !" horn a hundred llnoats, b<> loud, so deep, so full of volume, it made tho ship vibialo, and iang in on the creeping pirate's eara, Fin 00 but c aim ing, he saw mischief in thttso shoitenod sails, and that Union Jack, tho toiror of bistiibe, using to a British cheer ; ho lo.vered his miinsiil, and crawled up on tho weather quarter. Arrived withiu a cable's length, ho double reefud hm foresail to 1 educe his late of sailing nearly to that of tho ship ; nud the next moment a tongito of flame and then a gush of smoke issued fiom his lee bow, and the ball flew Rcreaioing like a - sea-gull over the Apia's mizentop. lie then put his helm up, ami fired his other bow chase, and sent tho shot hissing and skipping on tho water past the ship. This piologue made the novices wince. wanted to leply with n canonade; but *Dodd foib.ido him bteinly, " If wo keep him aloof wo .ire done for." The pit ate drew nearer, and fired both guns in succession, hnllcd the 'Agra' amidships, and bent an IS pound ball through her foresail. Most of the faces were pale on the quai ter-deck ; it was veiy trying to bo shot at, and hit, and make no tctuin. Tho noxt double dischaige sent ono shot smash thiough tho stern cabin window, and spbntried the bulwark with another, wounding a seaman slightly. " Lie down forwaid," bhoutcd Dodd, thiough his trumpet, " Bayliss, give him a shot.' 1 The oanonnde was iiieel with a tiemendous lcpoit, but no visible effect Tho pirate crept nearer, steering in ami out like a . snake to avoid tho can onadoH, and filing those two heavy guns alternately into the devoted ship. Ho hulled the 'Agin' now nearly every shot. The two available carronades replied noisily, and jumped as usual ; they scut one tlmty-two pounder clean through tho .schoonoi's deck and sides ; but that was literally all thov did woi th speaking of. "Oui&o them!" ciied Dodd, "load them wiLh giapo ! They aie not to bo trusted with ball. All my 18 pounders dumb. They won't come alongside to give them a chance." At the next dischaige the pirate chipped the inizenniast, and knocked one of the sailois into dead pieces on the forecastle Dndd put bus helm down eio the smoke cleared, and got three canonades, heavily laden with giape.to bear. Sevcial pirates fell dead or wounded on the crowded deck, and some holes appealed in the foic»ail; this intei change was quite in favor of the ship. But tho lesson made the enemy more cautiAns ; she ciepfc n rarer, but steered so adiiotly, now light astern, now on the qnaiter, that the ship could seldom bring move than one caironule to bear, while he inked her foie and aft with grape and ball. In this aim in ing situation Dodd kept as many men below as possible; but for all he could do, four weie killed and seven wounded. Fullalove's woul came too true ; it was tho snrordfNi and the whale :it was a light of hammer and anvil ; ono hit, the other made a none. Cautious and ci uel, tho pirate hung on the poor baulking crentme's quarteis and lakeel her at point blank distance. He made her pass a bitter time. And her capt tin ! To see the splintering hull, tho pirting shrouds, the shivered gear, and hear the shiicks and groans of his wounded ; and he unable to leply in kind! The sweat of agony ponied down his face. Oh, if he could but leach the open soa, and squa.ro his y.ir.ls, and make a full chase of it — pcihaps fall in with aid. Wincing under each heavy blow he ciept doggedly, patiently on, towards that ono visible hope. At last, when tho ship was clove with shot, and peppered with grape, the channel opened — in live minutes moie he could put her dead before the wind. No. The pirate, on whose side luck had been from the Hist, got half a broadside to bear at long musket shot, killed a midshipman by Dodd's side, cut away two of the 'Agia's' mi/eii shroud 5 ., wounded the gaff: and cut; the jib stay ; down fell that powerful sail into the water, and diagged aoioss the ship's foiefoot, stopping her way to the open sen sho panted for; the mates gioanod ; theciew cheered stoutly, as British tar-, do in any great disaster ; the pnato 5 yellod with feiocious triumph, like the devils they looked. But most human event-*, even calamities, have two bides. The 'Agra' being brought almost to a, stand-still, the pirate forged ahead against his will, and the combat took a new and tciuble form. The elephant gun popped, an I the iifle cracked, in the * Agia's' mi/en top, and the man at the pirate's holm jumped into the air and fell dead ; both theorists claimed him. Then the three enrron ides peppered hjujji hotly ; and he hurled an iion shower back with fatal ciToai. Then at last the long 18 pounders on the gundeck got a word in, The old Nilei was not the man to miss a vessel along side in a quiet sea ;he sent two round shot clear through him ; the third splintered his bill walks, anr swept across his deck. "His masts ! fire at hi> masts !" lo.ued Dodd to Monk, thiough his trumpet; he then cot the jib clear, and made what sail he could without taking all the hands fiom the guns This kept the vessels neaily alongside a few minutes and the light was. hot as lire. The excitement wn* great. Tho pirate now, for the fiist tune, hoisted Ins flag. It was as black as ink. His crew yelled as it lose , the Butons, instead of quailing, cheered v ith fieice derision ! the pu.ttc's wild crew of jollow Malays, black chinlcss Papuan", and bronzed Poituguese, seived their side guiH, 12-pounders, -noli and with ferocious ciies; the white Britons diunk with battle now naked to tho waist grimed with powder, and spotted like leopards w itli blood of their own and tlicii mates, replied with loml undaunted ehoeis, and deadly hail of giape, from the quarterdeck; whslathemabtor-guuncr and his mate?, loading with a lapidity flic mixed races opposed could not livid, hulled the schooner wejl between wind ami water, nnd then filed chain shot at lier masts, as oi> deiod, and began to piny the mischief with her s-lnouds and rigging. Meantime, lAillalove and Kencnly, aided by Vespasian," who loaded, weio quiel'y butcheiing the pirate ctew two a minute, and hoped to settle the question they weio fighting for — smooth boie r. rifle ; but luckily neither fired once without killing ; sc "theie was nothing proven." Tho pit ate, hold as he was, got- sick of fair fighting hist ; ho hoisted his mainsail and drew lapiilly ahead, with a slight bearing to wimhviud, and dismounted a canonade and stovoin tho ship's quaiter-boat, by way of a palling- kick. The men bulled a contemptuous cheer after him ; they thought they had beaten him off. But Dodd knew better. He was but retiring a little way to make n moie deadly attack than ever; ho would soon wear, and cioss the 'Apia's' defenceless bows, to rake her foio and aft at a pistol-shot distance ; or grapple, and boaid the enfeebled ship two lmiuhed stiong. Dodd flew to the helm, and with his own hands put it haul n-wenther, to give, tho deck guns one more chance— the last — of sinking or disabling the elestioyer. As the ship obeyed, mid a deck gun bollowed below him, he saw a vessel running out fiom Log Island, anel coming swiftly up on his lee quarter. It was a schooner. Was she coming to his aid? Honor ! A black flag floated trom her foremast head. While Dodd's eyes weio staring out of his head at this deathblow to hope, Monk fired again ; just then a pale face came closo to Dodd's, anel a lolemn voice whispeiedin his ear, "Our ammunition isnearl^ done!" It was the first mate. Dodd seized his hand oonvnlsively, and pointed to the pirate's coming up to finish them; and snid, .with the calm of a brave man's despair, " Cutlasses ! and die hard I " At that moment the master-gunner fiied his last gun. It sent a chain (.hot on board the retiring pirate, took oft' a Portuguese's head and ipnn it clean into the sea ever so far to wimlwaid, and out tho schoonor's foremast 10 neaily thiough that it trembled and nodded, and presently snapped with a loud ciack, and oame down like a rotten Iree, with the yard and sail ; then oveilapping the deck, and buiying itself, black flag and all, in the eoa ; and theie in one moment lay the Distroyer, buffeting and wiiggling— like a heron on the water with his long wing broken— an utter cripple. "Silence!" roared Dodd, with his trumpet. "All hands make sail !" He set his courses, bent a new jib, anel stood out to windward close hauled, in hopes to mako a good offing, anel then put his ship dead befoie the wind, which was now riling to a stiff breeze. In doing this he crossed and the wind was begining to sing, and the sea to visa a littlo. " Gentlemen," baid ho, "lotuskneol down and pray for wisdom, in this sore straight."

Ho and bis ,ofljceri kneeled oa bho quarter-dock. When they rose, Dodd stood rapt about a minule ; his great thoughtful cyo saw no moro tho enemy, the sort, n6r 'anything external ; it Was turned inward. Ilia , officers looked at him in silence. "Shapo," mill he, at last, "there mv»t be a way out of them with nuch a broezo as this is now ; if wo could but see it." "Ay, if," gioaned Sharpe. Dodd mused again. "About bhip !" said lie, softly, like an absent man. "Ay, ay, sir." "Steer due north !" said ho, still like one whose mind.was elsewhere. While tho ship was coming about, ho gavo minute orders to tho mates and the gunner, to onsure co-operation in tho first, part of a delicate and dangerous manoeuvre ho had resolved to try. Tho wind \\as W.N.W. : lie was standing north ; one pirate lay on his lee beam, stopping a leak betweeu wind and water, and hacking the deck clear of his broken masts and yards. Tho other fresh, and thiistiug for the easy prey, came up from the N E. to weather on him and hang on his quarter, pirate fashion. When they were distajit about a bible's length, the fie-m pit ate, to meet the ship's change of tactics, changed his own, put his helm up a little, and gavo tho ship a broadside, well aimed at, but not destructive, tho guns being loaded with ball. Dodd, instead of replying, as was cxnected, took advantigo of the smoke and put his chip beforo tho wind. By this unexpected stroke, the vessels engaged ran swiftly a(. right, angles towaids one point, and the pir.ito saw himself menaced with two serious perils : a collision which might send him to the bottom of the sea in a minute, or a broadside delivered at .a pistol-shot distance, and with no possibility of his making a return. lie must either put his helm up or down. Ho chose tho bolder course, pnt his helm hard a lee, and stood ready to give bioadside for broadside. But ore he could bring his lee guns to bear, ho must offer his bow for one moment to tho ship's broadside ; and in that moment, which Dodd had provi(?cd for, Monk and his m.ites raked him foicaud nft at shoit distance with all tho five guns that weie clear on that side ; the carrouades followed and movrcd him .slantwise with giape and caunistor; the almost simultaneous discharge of eight guns made the ship tiemblc, and enveloped heriu thick smoke ; loud shriek i and groans weie heard from tho schooner; the smoke cleared; ths puate's mainsail hung on deck, his jib-boom was cut off like a carrot and the sail struggling; his foic»ail looked lace, lanes of dead and wounded lay still or writhing on his deck, and his lee scuppers ran blood into tho sea. The ship rushed down 'the wind, leaving the schooner staggering and all abioad. But not for long; the pit ate fned his broadsido after all, at tho now flying ' Agr.i,' split one of the canon.idesintwo, and killed a Liscar, and made a hole in the foiesail ; this done, ho hoisted his mainsail again in atiice, .sent his wounded below, flung his dead ovcibnaid, to the honor of their foes, and came after the flying ship, yawing and filing his bow chasers. The ship was silent. «She had no shot to throw away. Not only did she take these blows like a cowaul, but all signs of life disappeaicd on her, except t.vo men at the wheel, and tho captain on tho main gangway. Dodd had ordered the crew out of the ngqiug, armed them with cutlasses, and laid them flat on the forecastle. n.e also compelled Kenealy and Fullalovo to come down out of harm's way, no wiser on the smooth bore question than they went up. The great patient ship lan environed by her foe*, one destroyer light in the course, another in her wake, following her with yells of vengeance, and pounding away at her — but no leply. Suddenly the yells of the pirates on both sides ceased, and thcic was a moment of dead silence on the sea. Yet nothing fiesh had happened. Yes, this had happened; the piiatcs to wiudwaid, and tho pirates to lee waul of the ' Agia' had found out, at one and the same moment, that the merchant captain they had lashed, and bullied, and toitured, was a patient but tremendous man. It was not only to rake the fresh schooner he had pub his ship beforo the wind, but also by a double, dating, master-stroke to hurl his monster ship bodily on the other. Without a foi esail she could never get out of his way. Her crew had stopped the leak, and cut away and unshipped the bioken foiem.ist, and were stepping a new one when they saw tho huge ship beat ing down in full sail. Nothing easier than to slip out of her way could they c;et the foresail to draw ; but the time was short, the deadly intention manifest, the coming destruction swift. After that solomu silence came a stoun of cries and curses, as their seameu went to work to fit the yaid and raise the sail ; while their fighting men seized their matchlocks and trained tho guns. They wero well commanded by an heioic, able villain, Astein the consort thundered; but the 'Agra's ' rexponso was a dead silence, moie awful than broadsides. For then was seeu with what majesty the eudming Anglo-Saxon fights. One of that indomitable raco on the gangway, one at the foremast, two at tho wheel, conned and steered the great ship down on a hundred matchlocks and grinning broadside, just as they would have conned and steoied her into a British harbour " Starboaid ! " said Dodd, in a deep calm voice with a motion of Mr hand. " Stai board it is." The pirate waggled ahead a little. The man. forward made a slight signal to Dodd. " Port !" said Dodd quietly. "Port it is." But at this critical moment the pirate astcru sent a mischievous shot, and knocked one of the men to atoms nt tljp helm. Dodd moved his hand without a word, and another man lose from the deck, and took his place in silence, aud laid his unshaking hand on the wheel stained with that man's blood whose place he took. The high ship was now scarce sixty yards distant ; she seemed io know; she reared her lofty figure-head with gieat awful shoots into the air. But now the panting pirates got their new foresail, hoisted it with a joyful shout ; it drew, the schooner gathered away, and their furious consort, close on the Agra's heels, just then scourged her deck with giape. "Poit!" said Dodd calmly. "Port it is, Sir." Tne giant prow darted at the escaping piiate. That acre of coming canvas took the wind out of the swift schooner's foresail ; it flapped ; oh, then sjip was doomed ! That awful moment parted the laces on board her ; the Pa] mans and Sooloos, their black faces livid and blue with lioiror, leaped yelling into tho sea, or crouched and whimpered; the yellow Malays and brown Poituguese, though blanched to one colour now, turned on the death like dying panther*, fired two cannon slap into the ship's bows, and snipped their mnskots and matchlocks at their solitary executioner on the ship's gangway, and out flew their knives like cutshed wasp's stings* Clash ! tho Indiamin cutwater in thick smoke beat in the schooner's bioadside; down went her masts to leeward like fishing 1 oils whipping the water; thcio was a hoinble, shacking yoll ; wild foims leaped off on the Agia, and were hacked to pieces almost cio they reached the deck — a surge, a cha>m in the sea, filled with an iustant iush of cngulphing waves, a long, awful, giating, grinding noi^c, nevci to be forgotten in this woild. all along undci the ship's keel — and the feaiful majestic monster passed on over the blank she had made, with a p.ile crew standing silent and awestiuck on her deck ; a cluster of wild heads and staling eyeballs bobbing like coiks iv her foaming wake, sole i clje of the blottcd-out dcstioycr ; and a wounded man staggeiing on tho gangway, with hands uplifted aud staring eyes. Shot in two places the head and the bi cast! "With a loud cry of pity and dismay, Sharp, Fullalove, Keuraly, and otheis lushed to catch him; but ere they got near the captain of tho triumphant ship fell down on his hands and knees, his head sank over the gangway, and his blood lan fast and pattered in tho midst of them, on tho deck he had dpfended so bravely.

Extraordinary Riflt. Snoorao. — The shooting this year manifests a very marked improvement upon that of last year, and that not ou'y iv the com petition for the Queen's prize— the blue ribbon of rifle shooting — but in every match which came off. In point of fact, the standard of excellence may be held to have advanced some thirty per cent., and the best porformaucei of last year could only have taken rank< a? secoud-iate pei fornuuces this year. The Queen's Prize this year was won by Sergeant Roberts, of the 12th Shropshire regiment of Volunteers, who made the extraoidiunry score of 65 at the tlnee long rauges. Had he mado a bull'seye at every shot, his score would only have been 84, Sergeaut Graham, of the 2nd Wilt?, came very near to him with a score of 64- Both Mr. Roberts and Mr. Graham only missed the tartjet once, and the former struck the bull's eye at tlio 800, 900, and 1,000 yards' range no less than nine times. But the chooting for the Albert Prize (a cup worth £100, and £100 in money) was even moie extraordinary, for the winner (Sergeant Martin Smith, of the Victoria Rilles) scored 73— only eleven under the greatest possible score— at the long rauges, and the second competitor (Ensign Brazil, of the 01st Lancashire) scored 70. Neither Mr, Smith nor Mr. Btazill missed the target once at these long distances, and the foimer hit tho bull's-eye twelie times iv tho twenty-one shots, the latter hitting it ten times. To those who know anything of the use of the rifle' and have seen how very small even the target looks at the long ranges, and how infinitesimally minute appears the bull's-eye, such shooting, made continuously and not by chance, must appear little short of miraculous.— English Paper, July 18. ( When does it behove a man to mind his p's and q'sT— When his affairs are iv a ticklish condition.