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went , cutting up such a furrow with her bow as showed us it would be vain to rival her speed on a wind . The negroes stopped rowing in despair , and looked at the flying boat as if to hint that our interference had been worse than useless . " ¦ GBve way , " I cried ; " the felucca will be becalmed again long before she reaches the fort . See , her sails are flapping now . '' True enough ;
she had got under the shadow of high land , and was almost stationary . The rowers redoubled their exertions , and as we again came near , we saw the officer in charge of the felucca and two other white men standing up ready to resist with knives drawn . The chief officer had a pistol in his hand , so that the encounter promised danger enough to deter many from finishing the adventure . We , however , kept on , and were closing up , when the officer after warning us once
more , pulled the trigger . The ball lodged in one of the planks of the boat , injuring no one , and next moment we were alongside . Seizing a stretcher , I sprang upon the stern of the felucca . The chief officer aimed hi & knife at my breast ; but I struck out with my stretcher , and sent him sprawling in the bottom of the boat , where he lay stunned for some time . One of my negroes , who had followed , grappled with one of the white men , while the prisoner seized the
other white by the leg just as he meditated a blow at me , and , with a jerk , hurled him into the fore part of the boat , where he settled , after tumbling over the rowers' benches , with his own knife sticking in his shoulder . The rowers , who , as slaves , sympathized with us , remained motionless spectators of this scene . The white , who was combatting with one of my rowers , did not resist long , and we at once escaped with our prize .
"What was to be done now ? It was clear that if we attempted to land at the Palace Square , we should be at once seized by the police ; but it was equally plain that we should have to land somewhere , and speedily . If we delayed long , we should probably have a Grovernment boat in chase of us . I quickly resolved upon running alongside the nearest English man-of-war in the harbour . . This was H . M . frigate Tethys . I mounted on deck , told my story to the lieutenant in command of the watch , who handed it on to the
captain , who soon came on deck to look into the matter . He was a man whose , intelligence was limited , but who knew exactly all his duty as captain , and nothing more . He was the terror of the crew , as a martinet ; but beyond his ship , he knew nothing . He had not the slightest conception whether the earth was flat or round , but was aware that to discover your latitude it was necessary to go through a certain
process with the sun , but not why it was necessary to do so . Ho could scarcely speak a sentence grammatically , but could swear for a quarter of an hour without once repeating himself . In fact , he was a man who all through life had done one thing at a time , and had never for an instant wandered from his profession . The present case was rather beyond his general experience . " I should say , sir , " he replied , after the matter had been fully explained to him , " I should say that you were in an awkward state .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Untitled Article
went , cutting up such a furrow with her bow as showed us it would be vain to rival her speed on a wind . The negroes stopped rowing in despair , and looked at the flying boat as if to hint that our interference had been worse than useless . " ¦ GBve way , " I cried ; " the felucca will be becalmed again long before she reaches the fort . See , her sails are flapping now . '' True enough ;
she had got under the shadow of high land , and was almost stationary . The rowers redoubled their exertions , and as we again came near , we saw the officer in charge of the felucca and two other white men standing up ready to resist with knives drawn . The chief officer had a pistol in his hand , so that the encounter promised danger enough to deter many from finishing the adventure . We , however , kept on , and were closing up , when the officer after warning us once
more , pulled the trigger . The ball lodged in one of the planks of the boat , injuring no one , and next moment we were alongside . Seizing a stretcher , I sprang upon the stern of the felucca . The chief officer aimed hi & knife at my breast ; but I struck out with my stretcher , and sent him sprawling in the bottom of the boat , where he lay stunned for some time . One of my negroes , who had followed , grappled with one of the white men , while the prisoner seized the
other white by the leg just as he meditated a blow at me , and , with a jerk , hurled him into the fore part of the boat , where he settled , after tumbling over the rowers' benches , with his own knife sticking in his shoulder . The rowers , who , as slaves , sympathized with us , remained motionless spectators of this scene . The white , who was combatting with one of my rowers , did not resist long , and we at once escaped with our prize .
"What was to be done now ? It was clear that if we attempted to land at the Palace Square , we should be at once seized by the police ; but it was equally plain that we should have to land somewhere , and speedily . If we delayed long , we should probably have a Grovernment boat in chase of us . I quickly resolved upon running alongside the nearest English man-of-war in the harbour . . This was H . M . frigate Tethys . I mounted on deck , told my story to the lieutenant in command of the watch , who handed it on to the
captain , who soon came on deck to look into the matter . He was a man whose , intelligence was limited , but who knew exactly all his duty as captain , and nothing more . He was the terror of the crew , as a martinet ; but beyond his ship , he knew nothing . He had not the slightest conception whether the earth was flat or round , but was aware that to discover your latitude it was necessary to go through a certain
process with the sun , but not why it was necessary to do so . Ho could scarcely speak a sentence grammatically , but could swear for a quarter of an hour without once repeating himself . In fact , he was a man who all through life had done one thing at a time , and had never for an instant wandered from his profession . The present case was rather beyond his general experience . " I should say , sir , " he replied , after the matter had been fully explained to him , " I should say that you were in an awkward state .