96 NIMROD OF THE SEA; OR, 



boat to hold her own in chase with a whale-boat. Chipman 

 stood in our stern, and sprung on the after -oar, in order 

 that we might gain all time possible in getting the old man 

 aboard before our pursuers could reach the shore. We 

 passed across their course at full spring, as though we were 

 going on to a whale, inattentive to the Spanish hail that 

 came after us. Chipman could not " sabe Spanish," and he 

 consigned the men-of-war's men to regions more torrid than 

 Peru, at the same time urging us to pull faster. It was but 

 a mile's distance to the shore, and we had time enough, if the 

 captain was only on hand. We shot up to the pier in a few 

 minutes, but he was not to be seen. A man was hurried to 

 the consul's house to find him, and meanwhile the mud- 

 turtle in chase hauled alongside. A Spanish sailor laid his 

 hand on our gunwale, as though to seize the boat. " Put 

 your boat-hook through that hand," said Chipman, coolly ; 

 and, in obedience to orders, the point of the hook was struck 

 deep into the wood, from which the frightened senor has- 

 tily jerked his hand. The lieutenant in command of the 

 Spaniards, with a "carrajo," tumbled from his stern-sheets 

 clumsily to the pier, and drawing a pistol from his belt, 

 more by his motions than by the clearness of his lingo, gave 

 us to understand that we must surrender the boat. Chip- 

 man had quietly obtained a lance, and had slipped the wood- 

 en sheath from the head, and when the officer gave a dan- 

 gerous direction to his pistol, the whaleman's favorite weap- 

 on was poised in the air, in the hand of a cool, determined 

 fellow, who seldom missed his mark. The Spaniard cocked 

 his pistol, and in broken English said, " Get out." In very 

 excellent and time-honored English, Chipman bade him " go 

 to Jericho !" With hurried aim, and a visibly trembling 

 hand, the trigger was pulled, a cap snapped, and the Span- 

 ish officer's billet for Paradise, signed and sealed, was al- 

 most delivered from the point of a whale lance, when the 



