er's stern, with the neptune bestride it, in mon vum almos' off! Sacre, vous ingrat, Havana, barin' he wants a tail! Han't to treatez me so like, when I am feed you he a queer un?-but how in natur do you wis de bon dinner!" suppose he makes out to steer without a My attention was called away from this rudder?" scene of hilarity, by the voice of the "Steer wid de head turn behin' him!" watch in the fore-top, announcing a sail answered Seignor Essequibo. bursting into a chuckling laugh-mighty tickled with A faint indefinable speck could be seen the struggles of the ungainly monster, in the quarter designated, fluttering on the "Che, che, che?-him sea-dragum-catch bosom of the blue sea like a drift of foam. um plenty on de cosh ob Barbada. Take With the aid of a glass we made it out care ob him horn!" to be the topsail of a schooner, but so dis

in sight.

"Yo, heave, ho! Shaint Pathrick, an its tant that her hull and lower sails were be me what's caught a whale!" exclaimed a low the brim of the horizon. Her canbrawny Patlander, while he tugged and vas had probably just been unloosed to swea ed to heave in his prize. the breeze, which was directly after seen

"By gorra! you hook one barracounter" roughening the face of the broad, smooth cried Elly, as his eye caught a glimpse expanse as it swept down towards us. of the big fish curveting in the water at "That glass, Mr. Waters-she is standthe end of Paddy's line,-"Bes' fish in de ing towards us, and by the gods of war! worl!-good for make um chowder- the cut of her narrow flying royal, looks good for fry-for ebery ting,-me help marvellously like that of our friend the you pull him in, Massa Coulan," and with- Sea-Sprite!" said the captain, while the out further ado, he laid hold of the line. blood flashed over his bald forehead, like The beautiful fish was hauled, in and con-heat lightning' over a summer cloud; signed to the custody of the cook. "Mr. Hackinsack, see that every thing is

"Stave in my bulwarks, if this ere dra- ready for a chase." gon-fish ha'nt stuck one of his horns into The broad sails were unloosed and sheetmy foot an inch deep!" roared out an old ed close home. Directly the wind was marine,-"Hand me that sarving mallet, with us, and we were bowling along unsnow ball, I'll see if I can't give him a der a press of canvass.

sails

hint to behave better." "Now, quartermaster, look to your "Hurrah!-here comes an owl-fish, I as closely as you would watch one seekreckon;" shouted a merry wight of a ing your life." Another squint through tar, from the land of wooden nutmegs, the glass. "Ha! they have suspected us, "specimen of the salt-water owl; Lord, and are standing in toward the land, jam look at his teeth-how he grins!-What on the wind:-let them look to it sharply: are you laughing at my beauty?" it must be a fleet pair of heels that can

"Le diable! une chouette dans la mer?" keep pace with the Dart,-though to say exclaimed a little wizen-pated Frenchman the least of yonder cruiser, she is no lagwho had seated himself astraddle of the gard!"

cathead. "Vel, Monsieur Vagastafsh, After pacing the deck some ten minutes, comment nommez vous dish petit poisson?" he again hove short and lifted the glass "Poison! No, Monsheer, I rather guess to his eye.

there han't the least bit o' poison in natur "By heavens! the little witch still holds about that ere young shark," replied Wag- her way with us!-Have the skysail set staff, "though for that matter a shark's and rig out the top-gallant-studd'n sail." worse'n poison." Every one on board was now eager in "I not mean poison-I say poisson-the chase. The orders were obeyed alfish." most as soon as given. Our proud vessel, “O, poison fish—yes, I know-you'll under the press of sail, absolutely flew find plenty on the Bahamy copper banks. over the water, haughtily tossing the ramI always get the cook to put a piece of pant surges from her sides, while her silver in the boilers, when we grub on fish bows were buried in a roaring and twirlin them ere parts." ing sheet of foam, and a broad band of "O, mon dieu! le rasccalle hash bitez snow stretched far over the dark blue

waste astern, showing a wake as strait as tinels looking afar over the wide waste of an arrow. She was careened down to blue. Here and there a torrent could be the breeze, so that her lower studd'n-sail- traced, leaping from crag to cliff, seeming boom every moment dashed a cloud of as it blazed in the fierce sun-light, to run spray from the romping billows, and her liquid fire; and gorgeous masses of wild lee rail was at times under water. Her creepers and tangled undergrowth hung masts curved and whiffled beneath the down over the embattled heights, swaying immense piles of canvas, like a stringed and flaunting in the gale, like the banners bow. and streamers of an encamped army.

"She walks the waters bravely," said Not the slightest chance for harbor or the captain, casting a glance of exultation anchorage could be discovered along the at the distended sails, and bending spars, whole iron-bound coast, yet the gallant and then at our arrowy wake." But, by little Sea-Sprite held steadily on her Jupiter, the chase still almost holds her course, steering broad for the base of the way with us. We need more sail aft. mountains.

Bear a hand, my men, and run up the ringtail."

"Why, in the name of madness, is the fellow driving in among the breakers?" muttered our brave captain;

"That will answer,-a dolphin would have a sweat to beat us in this trim! "Thinks he to escape by running into "Well, Mr. Percy, is yonder dasher the danger! By Mars; and if I mistake not, craft that pillaged your ship, and sent he shall have peril to his hearts content you cruising about the ocean in that bit ere nightfall!"

of a cockle-shell think you?"

But fate willed that we should be dis"That is the pirate schooner-I cannot appointed; for just as every thing had mistake her," replied Percy who stood been arranged to treat the buccaneer with his flashing eyes rivetted on the with a fist full of grape and canister, one vessel, and his fingers impatiently work-of those sudden tempests, so common to ing about the hilt of his cutlass, while his the West Indies in the autumn months, brow was darkened with an intense de- was upon us. A vast, black, conglomsire of revenge. merated volume of vapor swung against Three hours passed and we had gained the mountain summits, and curled heavily within a league of the noble looking craft. down over the cliffs. Brilliant scintillaShe was heeled down to to the breeze, so tions were darting from its shadowy borthat owing to the bagging' of her lower ders, and the zigzag lightnings were playsails, her hull was almost hidden from ing about it, and licking its ragged folds sight. Like a snowy cloud, she darted like the tongues of an evil spirit! Suddenalong the revelling waters, the sunbeams ly it burst asunder, and a burning gleam basking on her wide spread wings, and the-a wide conflagration, as if the very sprightly billows flashing and surging earth had exploded-flashed over the Never saw I an object hills, accompanied with a peal of thunder more beautiful. that made the broad ocean tremble, and The land was now fully in sight-a our deck quiver under us, like a harpoonstern and rock-bound coast, against which ed grampus in his death grasp! The electhe breakers dashed with maddening vi-tric fluid upheaved and hurled to fragolence, and for half a mile from the shore ments an immense peak near the summit the water was one conflicting waste of of the mountains, and huge masses of rock Snowy surf and billow. No signs of in-with thunderous din, and amid clouds of habitants, on either hand, as far as the dust, smoke and fire, came bounding and eye could view, were discernible. The racing down from crag to crag, uprooting long range of stern, solitary, mountains the tall cedars, and dashing to splinters the arose from the waves, and towered away firm iron-wood trees, as though they had till lost in the clouds. Their sides, save been but reeds-sweeping a wide path of where some splintered cliff lifted its gray ruin through the thick forests and shiverpeaks in the day, were clothed with thick ing to atoms and dust the loose rocks forests, among which the tufted palm and that obstructed their career, till with a cinnamon stood up conspicuously like sen-whirring bound, they plunged from a beet

around her bows.

ling cliff into the sea, causing the tortured ten coast. If ever old Satan West was water to send up a cloud of mist and taken aback, it was then. His brow darkspray. All on board were struck aghast ened, and a shadow of unuterable disapat the blinding brilliancy of the flash and pointment passed over his countenance. its terrible effects, "Gone!By all that is mysterious and We were aroused to a sense of our wonderful-gone!" he muttered to himsituation, by the clear, sonorous voice of self,-"escaped from my very grasp! Satan West, whom nothing pertaining can there be truth in the wild tales told of to earth could daunt, calling all hands to her? No, no-idiot to harbour the take in sail. thought for a moment-she has founder

Instantly the trade-wind ceased, and a ed!' fearful, death-like silence ensued. This But this was hardly probable, as not was of short duration; hardly were our the slightest vestige of her remained about sails stowed close, when we saw the trees the spot.

tain.

drawn upwards twisted off and rent to pie- Poor Percy, too, was the picture of des ces, while a dense mass of leaves and bro- pair. His hat had been blown away by the ken branches whirled over the land; and hurricane; and his hair tossed rudely in a wild, deep, wailing sound, as of rushing the wind, as he stood in the main-chains, wings, filled the air, foretelling the onset gazing with the wildness of a maniac over of the whirlwind, the uproarous waters. "The hurricane is upon us!-helm "The lovers of the marvellous would hard aweather!" thundered the cap- here find enough to fatten upon, I ween," said Dacres, composedly helping himself But the Dart was already lying on her to a quid of tobacco. What think you beam-ends, heaving, groaning and quiver- is to come next? for I hardly think the ing throughout every timber, in the fierce play ends with actors and all being embrace of the tremendous blast! After spirited away in a thunder gust!" its first overpowering shock, however, the I was interupted in my reply by the gallant craft slowly recovered, and by energetic exclamations of the captain, dint of the strenuous exertions of our men who had been gazing seward, over the she was got before the gale. Away she quarter-rail.

sprang, like a frightened thing over the "Yes, by all the imps in purgatory, it is tormented and whitening surges, com- that devil leagued pirate,' burst from his pletely shrouded in foam and spray. A lips; and at the same moment cry of Sail dense cloud, murky as midnight, spread O! was heard from the forward watch. over the face of the heavens, where a mo- A long-sparred vessel could be seen, rement before, naught met the gazer's eye, leived against the black bank of clouds, save the fleecy mackerel-clouds, drifting that were crowding the horizon. Surafar through its cerulean halls. The blue prize was imagined on every countenance, lightnings gleamed, the thunder boomed and when the order was passed to crowd and rattled, the black billows shook their on all sail in pursuit, a murmur of disapflashing manes, the whole firmament was probation run through the whole crew. in an uproar; and amid the wild rout, our However, such was their dread of old Salittte Dart, as a dry leaf in the autumn tan West, that no one dared demur openwinds, was borne about, a very plaything ly. Again the Dart was bounding over in the eddying whirls of the frantic ele- the waves in pursuit of the stranger, which had confirmed our suspicions as to her

ments.

- The tempest was as short lived as it character, by hoisting all sail and endeawas sudden, and as the schooner had sus-vouring to escape us. tained no material injury, directly after it) But here likewise were disappointed. had abated she was under sail again. She proved to be a Baltimore clipper, and When the rain cleared up in shore, every had endeavoured to run away from us, taeye sought eagerly for the pirate craft. king us for the same craft we had supposed to be.

She had vanished! Nothing met our view but the tossing After parting from the Baltimorean, we and tumbling surges, and the breaker-bea- ran in; and as the evening fell, anchored

is under the land, sheltered from the waves I turned and Percy stood by my side. The by a little rocky promontory. It was my beauty of the evening had soothed his turn to take the evening watch. Our wild and agitated feelings. He spoke of wearied crew were soon lost in sleep, and his wife with touching regret, as if certain all was hushed into repose, if I except the that she was lost to him for ever. For shrill, rasping voices of the green lizards, nearly an hour he stood gazing on the the buzzing and humming of the numerous moor's bright attendant, as if he fancied insects on shore, and the occasional, long- it her home.

creak of the cable, as the schooner swung At length he disappeared below, and at her anchor. The moon attended by again Ponto, who seemed to be wrapped one bright, beautiful planet, was on her in a deep revery was my only companion. wonted round through the heavens, and We had remained several minutes in sithe far expanse of ocean, reflecting her lence, when suddenly, as if it had dropped effulgence, seemed to roll in billows of from the clouds, a female form appeared molten silver beneath the gentle night- far above us, on a precipitous bluff that wind, which swept from the land, fragrant leaned out over the deep, on which the with the breath of wild-flowers and spicy solitary moonlight slept in unobstructed shrubs. brightness. The form advanced so near Little Ponto, the reefer, lay on a gun car- the brink of the fearful crag, that we could riage near me, This boy, whom, when on even distinguish the color of her drapery a former cruise, I had rescued from a Tur- as it fluttered in the wind. By the mokish Trader, was a favourite with all on tion of her arms she seemed beckoning board. Although in person, effeminate and us on shore; then, as if despairing to atbeautiful as a girl, and possessing the strong tract our attention, she looked fearfully affections of the weaker sex, he still was about, and the next moment a strain of exnot wanting in that courage and energy quisite melody came floating down to us, which constitutes the pride of man- like a voice from heaven. We remained hood. He was an orphan and with the breathless, and could almost distingnish exception of a sister and aunt, who were the words. living together in England, there was not

The strain termined in a startling cry,

in the wide world, one being with whom and with a frantic gesture the figure tore he could claim relationship. When very a crimson scarf from her neck, and shook young, he had been entrusted to the it wildly on the winds; at the same mocharge of the friendly captain of a mer- ment the dark form of a man leaped out on chant ship, bound to Smyrna, for the pur- the cliff. There was a short struggle, with pose of improving his health. But the reiterated shrieks of "help! help! help!" vessel never reached her distined port. in a voice of agony, and all disappeared She was captured by an Algerine rover, in the deep shadow of another rock. and the boy made prisoner. It was from Ponto, who at the first burst of the song the worst of slavery that I had rescued had started up and grasped my arm with him, and ever after the occurrence his degree of wild energy I had never witness gratitude toward me knew no bonds. He ed in him before, now suddenly released appeared to be contented and happy in his his hold and with a single bound plunged present situation, save when his thoughts into the sea. So lost was I in amazement reverted to his lone sister. Then the tears at the whole scene, that for a moment I would spring into his eyes, and he would remained undecided what course to purtalk to me of her beauty and goodness, sue; then, not wishing to alarm the ship, till I was almost in love with the pure be- I ordered Waters the midshipman of ing which his glowing descriptions had the watch, to jump into the boat with a conjured to my mind. I loved that boy few men and pull after him.

woman.

as a brother, and he returned my affection The head of my little favourite soon bewith a fervor, equalling that of a trusting came visible in the moonlight. With a vigorous arm he struck out for the shore, As I leaned against the companion-way and was immediately hid in the deep shaabsorbed in pleasant dreams of my far dow of its mural cliffs. A moment, and I home, a touch on the shoulder aroused me. again saw him on the beetling rocks,

whence the female had just disappeared; to each other all night long, and the very then he, too, was lost in the darkness. next day our ship was driven upon the Waters after being absent in the boat rocks in a white squall, and wrecked, and about half an hour, returned without hav- only myself and a Congo nigger escaped ing discovered the least sign of the fugi- alive, out of a crew of twenty-three-It tive. Hour after hour I awaited the re- strikes me, too,' he continued, after listenturn of my adventurous boy, filled with ing a moment, "that we shall have a strom painful anxiety. before morning; the fog seems to be brushAs the night deepened, the clouds, which ing by us, and the noise of the breakers on during the day had slumbered on the shore grows terribly loud. I would give mountain battlements, as if held in awe by all the prize-money I ever gained to be the majesty of the burning sun, rolled slow- out of the place, with good sea-room a ly down the steeps and gradually spread flowing sheet, and our bows turned toward out on the sea, enveloping us in their hu- home-no good ever came of fighting mid embrace. A denser mist I never saw; these pirate imps. Heaven help us! what my thin clothing was soon wet through is that?' he exclaimed with a start, as a and clinging to me like steel to a magnet, tall, white form shot up, a few rods under and we were completely lost in darkness. our stern, seen but dimly through the fog. As I paced the deck, not willing to go be- The fact flashed upon me at once; our low while my young favourite was in per- cable had been cut; it was the spray of il, Waters tapped me on the shoulder. the breakers rebounding from the shore. "Did you notice any thing then, Mr. The best bower anchor was instantly let Hackinsack? I thought I heard a splash go, which brought us up; not however in the water, like the dip of an oar.' till we had drifted within a cable's length "Some fish, I suppose, Waters." of the breakers, which ramped and roared "I think not, sir; besides, just now I saw all the night with maddening violence, as a dark object gilding slowly across our if eager to engulf us. The alarm was bow in the mist which I took for a drifting given, and in a few minutes every log." was prepared for any emergency that I walked round the deck and peered in might occur. the fog on every side, but could discover I ordered Ramrod to clap a charge of nothing. I listened; all was silent save grape into one of the bow chasers and let the tweet, tweet, of lizards and the roar drive at the first object that came in sight. of the surf, as it beat on the rocks astern. As I gave the order the dip of oars could Presently old Benjamin Ramrod, the gun-be plainly distinguished, receding from our bows. Benjamin did not wait to see

ner, came aft.

thing

"I wish this infernal fog would clear up!' the marauders, but fired in the direction said he, "for the last half hour, I have of the sound. The fog was swept away heard strange noises about us! I am before the mouth of the gun, to some dismuch mistaken, or we are surrounded by tance, and I caught a glimpse of a boat enemies of some sort or other. When filled with men. A deep groan told that that shining aparition arose from the bluff the gun had been rightly directed. there, and began to beckon to us, I said to There was now no doubt that we were myself, some accident is going to happen surrounded by enemies. It was only by before many hours, and you see if my the foreboding watchfulness of the gunner pro'nostics ar'n't true. Minded you how that we were prevented from going by her sweet voice, she lured that poor ashore, where, doubtless, the pirates exboy, Ponto, overboard?—and even I, who pected to have obtained an easy victory may say I've had some experience of such over us.

matters, began to feel a queerish sensation About ten minutes after this incident I as I hearkened to her witchery. Many a was startled by the faint voice of Ponto, poor sailor has lost his life by listening to hailing me from under the schooner's side. their lonesome-like songs. I remember I joyfully lowered the man-ropes and im once when I was on the coast of Africa, mediately had the adventurous boy beside in a gold-dust and ivory trader, we heard me on the quarter-deck. He grasped my the water-wraiths and mermaids singing hand, and I felt him tremble all over with

eagerness.