FROM GUAH.ON TO ST. HELENA. ^27 1 



The vessel, notwithstanding the dark, was easily 

 distinguished, and had we kept our course tw^o mi- 

 nutes longer, the Rurick would certainly have been 

 boarded, which was probably the intention of the 

 robbers. Firmly resolved to conquer or die, I 

 immediately ordered the right side of the ship to 

 be turned against the enemy, which was at the 

 most twenty fathoms from us, and the guns were 

 instantly fired; the grape-shot and balls must cer- 

 tainly have taken effect at so small a distance, 

 which must have been very unexpected to the 

 pirates, and done them much damage ; for our 

 cannons were scarcely fired, when they took another 

 course, and w^e still heard, for some time, different 

 voices crying all together. Thus we escaped a 

 danger which, with less precaution, might have 

 cost us our lives, and even this would perhaps not 

 have availed us if the robbers had not been so im- 

 prudent as to let us see the light. When Captain 

 Guorin, who had again remained half-a-mile be- 

 hind, heard our cannonade, he thought that we 

 had fired as a signal of distress, and that w^e had 

 been wrecked, and he turned his ship that he might 

 escape the shoal. I made a signal that I wished 

 to speak with him ; the Rurick lay-to till the 

 Eglantine came up to us, and after I had related 

 to him this adventure, we continued our course. 



The 9th. At eleven o'clock A.M. we saw from 

 the mast-head the island of Gasper, in S. by W., 

 and at noon, it was thirty-se\en miles from us in 



13 



