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A shot, which before long came whistling across our fore-foot, showed them that they were wanted alongside the schooner. The schooner hoisted English colours, and from her general appearance I had no doubt that she was a privateer. As soon, therefore, as the boat went alongside, I sung out that I was an Englishman, and a prisoner. "Halloa!
The privateer Superior was commanded by a brave and energetic Frenchman, who took a singular pleasure in inflicting injuries on British commerce. This privateer, fitted out at Port Royal in Martinico, was said to have been the fastest vessel every known among the islands, and her commander laughed to scorn the attempts made to capture him by the finest vessels in the English navy.
He immediately went down to Newton, acquainting him with the circumstance, which bore a very suspicious appearance. Newton hastened on deck; with his glass he could plainly distinguish that the stranger was a vessel of a low, raking description, evidently no merchantman, but built for sailing fast, and in all probability a privateer.
Breakfast ended, we all went on deck; the ship and her prize were lying to; the hands were turned up; all the boats hoisted out, the prisoners and their luggage taken out of the prize, and, as the crew of the privateer came on board, they were all drawn up on the quarter-deck, and many of them known and proved to be Englishmen.
When they met upon a later occasion , they still pursued this inexhaustible subject. Wilkes told how a privateer had completely plundered seven Scotch islands, and re-embarked with three and sixpence. Johnson now remarked in answer to somebody who said "Poor old England is lost!" "Sir, it is not so much to be lamented that old England is lost, as that the Scotch have found it."
It's about a galleon that's loading at Cartagena for Spain; and, understandin' that this schooner is a privateer, I thought that maybe you'd like to have a try for her, and if so, sir, I'd advise you beggin' pardon for bein' so bold not to start so much as a rope-yarn of this vessel's rigging, or mayhap you'll be too late for the galleon."
The most effective of these was the "Long Tom," which was generally mounted on a pivot forward, and used in firing upon a fleeing vessel. The most famous achievement was that of the privateer General Armstrong, which carried nine long guns, the largest being 24-pounders, or "long nines."
I have, I think, sufficiently described the occupation of a privateer. What I might have become, under the instruction of my old friend Peter, and the strict discipline of a man-of-war, I know not. On board the privateer, with the constant influence of bad example, I was becoming worse and worse, and more the slave of all the evil ways of the world.
We were not destined, however, to encounter many dangers this time, or to reach the coast of South America: for we had not been many hours at sea, when a vessel hove in sight; she proved to be an American privateer brig, of fourteen guns and one hundred and thirty men, bound on a cruise off the Cape of Good Hope.
"Ah," said he, "my master is a brave, clever soldier; but like most soldiers, he does not know anything about the sea, and was in consequence uneasy when he heard the shrill sound of the whistle. Indeed, it made him change colour; he thought it might be a Russian privateer demanding you to stop.
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