Chap. XVIII. 
THE PIRATES AGAIN. 
307 
mined to stay there all night. I felt very much annoyed, 
but saw it was no use to grumble, and went quietly to 
bed. In less than an hour from this time, and before I 
had fallen asleep, hearing a stir upon deck, I inquired 
what was the cause, and found that we were getting 
under way. This was agreeable news ; but as I could 
not imagine what had caused them to change their 
minds so soon, I went upon deck to see what was going 
on. Our people, it appeared, had gone to sleep the 
moment our anchor was down ; shortly after this, the 
other junks, which, it turned out, were only waiting for 
the rise of the tide to enter some river in the vicinity, 
had all weighed anchor and gone off. All on board 
were now in great consternation, lest the pirates should 
come down upon us whilst at anchor, and no time was 
lost in getting it up and proceeding on our voyage, 
much, of course, to my satisfaction. 
On the following day, late in the afternoon, when I 
was laid up in my bed with fever, the captain came 
hurriedly down, and informed me that another fleet of 
pirates were in sight, and evidently l3^ng in wait for us. 
I was obliged to get up, ill as I was, and when I got on 
deck I could see by the aid of my telescope six junks 
coming out from amongst the islands under the main 
land, and evidently bearing down towards us. This time 
I was not so sceptical as the last. After having once 
seen these rascally vessels, there was no mistaking others 
of the same class, as they came sneaking out of the bays. 
Their clipper-built hulls, the cut of their sails, their 
raking masts, and the crowd of fellows who lined their 
decks, all told the business thev were after. It was 
