12 BIOGRAPHY. 



impossible to get away. At last, at the risk of imprison- 

 ment for life, he escaped by the daring and forethought 

 of a Swedish captain. 



He took on board Waterton and his younger brother, 

 the former being entered on the ship's books as a Swedish 

 carpenter, and the latter as a passenger. How carefully 

 the escape was planned, and how skilfully it was executed, 

 must be told in Waterton's own words : — 



" We slept on board for many successive nights, in hopes 

 of a fair wind to carry us through the Straits. At last, a 

 real east wind did come, and it blew with great violence. 

 The captain, whose foresight and precautions were truly 

 admirable, had given the strictest orders to the crew that 

 not a word should be spoken whilst we were preparing to 

 escape. We lay in close tier amongst forty sail of mer- 

 chantmen. The harbour-master having come his usual 

 rounds and found all right, passed on without making any 

 observations. 



" At one o'clock, p.m., just as the governor had gone to 

 the eastward to take an airing in his carriage, as was his 

 custom every day, and the boats of two Spanish brigs-of- 

 war at anchor in the harbour had landed their officers for 

 the afternoon's amusements, our vessel worked out clear 

 of the rest, and instantly became a cloud of canvas. The 

 captain's countenance, which was very manly, exhibited a 

 portrait of cool intrepidity rarely seen : had I possessed 

 the power, I would have made him an admiral on the spot. 



" The vessel drove through the surf with such a press of 

 sail that I expected every moment to see her topmasts 

 carried away. Long before the brigs-of-war had got their 

 officers on board, and had weighed in chase of us, we were 

 far at sea ; and when night had set in we lost sight of them 

 for ever, our vessel passing Gibraltar at the rate of nearly 

 eleven knots an hour." 



