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Updated: June 28, 2025
The result of all this was that while the schooner broached to and rode by the wreck of her foremast as to a sea anchor, La Mouette fell broad off and refused to come to the wind again; consequently the distance between the two vessels rapidly widened until both were out of range, and the firing ceased.
Howard Saunders has given plates of the first three primaries of L. melanocephalus and L. ridibundus, both being from birds of the year shot about March, in his paper on the Larinae, published in the 'Proceedings of the Zoological Society' for the year 1878. LITTLE GULL. Larus minutus, Pallas. French, "Mouette pygmée."
And very attentively everybody listened to the story, as I told it in detail, of how, after parting from the Eros, we had carried on in the hope of overtaking the Virginia; of how we had been caught in and overwhelmed by the hurricane; of how I came to go adrift, alone, in the longboat; of how I had been run down by La Mouette, and of my treatment on board her; of my adventures in King Banda's town, and my escape therefrom with the aid of poor Ama; of the death of the latter at which all hands expressed their sincere regret; and, finally, of how I had reached L'Esperance, and the extraordinary story I had heard while aboard her.
We accordingly retreated down the side, very much crestfallen and disappointed indeed, and, jumping into the dinghy, returned to the "Mouette," just as the captains' gigs from the various ships were coming up alongside.
If this were the case, what, I asked myself, was she likely to be? She could but be one of three things either a trader, a slaver, or a craft belonging to the Slave Squadron; the chances, therefore, were about even that on the morrow I might be able to effect my escape from La Mouette always provided, of course, that those strokes of the bell had been real.
Anchors, chains, ropes, blocks, etcetera, were loaded into the ships' boats, spare spars were launched overboard and formed into a raft, and that same evening the "Mouette" left the fleet, with fourteen boats and the raft in tow; and the wind happening to be dead fair, and just a nice little breeze for the purpose, enabling us all to crowd every stitch of canvas we could set, we ran gaily down before it, and by dusk had everything ashore in readiness for the commencement of our task the first thing on the following morning.
The general had established his head-quarters in a small fishing village, about four miles from San Fiorenzo, situated on the shore of a tiny cove visible from the brig's deck; we therefore proceeded in the gig, in the first place, alongside the "Mouette," where we shipped Francesca's small packet of personal belongings, and then, taking Giaccomo in the boat with us, we stepped the mast, hoisted the lug, and ran merrily down before the wind to the entrance of the cove, landing on the beach in perfectly smooth water, after rather more than an hour's sail.
Leroy at once called the crew to quarters and ordered them to return the schooner's fire; but the latter was too far off for either the carronades or the 6-pounders to reach her; and my spirits began to rise, for if the schooner could only continue as she had begun she would soon compel La Mouette to strike.
I replied that I thought I could manufacture a story which would hold water sufficiently to satisfy the functionary referred to, the thought flashing into my mind that I could personate the lad whom we had found in charge of the "Mouette" on the eventful evening of her capture. "Then if monsieur is still determined to pursue his adventure, I will write the letter," remarked Jean.
For, as fate would have it, the Barracouta had fallen in with the Felicidad with the French schooner Mouette in company as a prize the latter vessel having pursued the Felicidad out of the creek, only to find that she had caught a Tartar, which captured her after a short but determined struggle and from her the Barracouta's people had learned all particulars of our somewhat disastrous enterprise, including the news that I was missing, and was believed to have been killed in the unsuccessful attack upon the schooner in the creek.
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