400 NIGHTS IN THE GALLEY. 



war, so they were obliged to leave, after having taken but very little 

 of her cargo, not above a dozen bales of silks, with a few sails, some 

 rope and gunpowder ; ' and ray father/ said he, ' is very angry with 

 me for not having got more, and declares he will go himself next 

 time ; and this, you know, is just what we want. I have no doubt we 

 shall soon hear from our agent again, because just about this time 

 they have fine weather, and generally fair winds, so more of them 

 start now than at any other time of the year, and if we can but once 

 get clear, we shall be all right. I always wished to go, but I never 

 thought so much about it till I saw you ; I wonder whether I am 

 serving you for good or ill to myself: time will show.' f Good, I hope, 

 Yarnio/ said I ; ' and I think so too, as it will lead from bloodshed 

 and unnecessary cruelty. If you will lead this life, at any rate/ said I, 

 f lead the best part of it, and leave the worst for villains and cowards ; 

 for I never knew any but cowards who were really fond of shedding 

 blood unnecessarily ; a good fight is a good thing and a fair thing, 

 and does a feller good/ don't you think so, Tom ?" 



" To be sure it does," said Tom ; " I was never so well in my life 

 as in the war time, when we were fighting a'most every day." 



" No, no, lad, you may say that when you write home ; but as I 

 was a-saying, after this, things went on as usual, and for another 

 three months there was no change, no chance of my getting away ; 

 at last the happy time came ; their agent sent word another richly 

 laden merchantman had sailed. They had then to prepare every thing 

 in a hurry ; Old Pothalimo was not ill this time, he would not trust 

 Yarnio any more he was no use, he said, he did not know how to 

 manage at all so he'd go himself. The two boats were prepared as 

 before, and early in the morning a party of thirty twenty in one 

 boat, and ten in the other left the village, headed by Old Pothalimo, 

 and in about a quarter of an hour they were gone. Directly they 

 were well off, Yarnio came running to me, < It's all right/ said he, 

 ' now's our time ; I have got all prepared ; four men who I can trust, 

 I have told all about it, and they are willing to follow me and join 

 my cousin ; we've got a good week to ourselves, and long before that, 

 you I hope will be safe on board of a man-of-war, and I will be with 

 my cousin. We can't leave to-night, because Zuthea will not be ready ; 

 but to-morrow morning early away we go; and instead of your 

 dining with the slaves to-day, you must come and dine with us I 

 have taken care to send all those I can't trust out of the way, so we 

 shall be all safe.' I was precious happy, now as you may suppose, at 

 the idea of getting to Old England again, and perhaps having a nice 

 little brush with a Frenchman in our way, but yet I didn't feel quite 

 comfortable at leaving Zuthea ; but it would have been a shame to 

 ask her to go to England, and even if I had, perhaps she would have 

 refused, so I determined not to say any thing about it. Well, the 

 time passed away quick enough, laughing and talking ; at last we 

 went to bed, and at five o'clock Yarnio came to me. ' Get up, get 

 up/ said he, ( now is our time, the boat is all ready.' All the things 

 had been put into it by the four men the night before. Down we 

 went, and I was once more at sea. Oh ! lads, you don't know the 

 pleasure of smelling salt water again, after looking at it every day 



