194 TAKEN BY A PRIVATEER. 



lers hired an open boat called a lancha, a sort of craft 

 employed habitually in the latitudes east of Cape Co- 

 dera, where the sea was scarcely ever rough. Their 

 lancha, which was laden with cocoa, carried on a contra- 

 band trade with the island of Trinidad. For this reason 

 the owner imagined they had nothing to fear from the 

 enemy's vessels, which then blockaded all the Spanish 

 ports. They embarked their collection of plants, their 

 instruments, and their monkeys ; and, the weather being 

 delightful, they hoped to make a very short passage from 

 the mouth of the Rio Neveri to Cumana. But they had 

 scarcely reached the narrow channel between the conti- 

 nent and the rocky isles of Borracha and the Chi man as, 

 when to their great surprise they came in sight of an 

 armed boat, which, whilst hailing them from a great dis- 

 tance, fired some musket-shot at them. The boat be- 

 longed to a privateer of Halifax. The protestations of 

 the travellers were without effect; they were carried on 

 board the privateer, and the captain, affecting not to re- 

 cognise the passports delivered by the governor of Trini- 

 dad for the illicit trade, declared them to be a lawful 

 prize. Being a little in the habit of speaking English, 

 Humboldt entered into conversation with the captain, 

 begging not to be taken to Nova Scotia, but to be put on 

 shore on the neighbouring coast. While he endeavoured, 

 in the cabin, to defend his own rights, and those of the 

 owner of the lancha, he heard a noise on deck. Some- 

 thing was whispered to the captain, who left in con- 

 sternation. Happily for them an English sloop of 

 war, the Haw r k, was cruising in those parts, and had 

 signalled the captain to bring to ; but the signal not 

 being promptly answered, a gun w T as fired from the sloop, 



