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Mr Vining, the third lieutenant, and Carter, were, it will be remembered, both absent in the prizes we had taken at the Roccas. As soon as we saw that our own noble frigate was safe, Paddy who never liked to lose anything gave the order to pass the messenger and get the anchor, instead of cutting the cable.
The trade-wind was again blowing, and blowing strong, too, so that, by carrying on, night and day, we made the passage in exactly three days, almost to a minute, from the Roccas; and I had the satisfaction of handing the despatches to the Admiral that same night.
I am not going to allow you to come alongside again, so I would recommend you to make the best of your way to the Roccas, which, as you know, bear south-south-west, some twenty-five miles distant. I have no doubt that, if you can reach them, you are certain to be taken off sooner or later.
Moreover, we were not very far from the land. The Roccas were only some twenty-five miles away, at the utmost, and could easily be reached by Dominguez before midnight; and the weather was fine, and the water smooth.
Fortunately for my purpose, we were making rather a long passage of it, the little hooker not being by any means a particularly weatherly craft; consequently our first land-fall on our sixth day out was the curious shoal and accompanying group of rocky islets called Los Roques, or The Roccas, off La Guayra, close to which we hove about and stood to the northward on the starboard tack.
Our position at noon on the previous day was of course laid down upon it, and it needed but a few moments' consideration of the courses and distances that we had subsequently steered to demonstrate that we had blundered right into the heart of Los Roques, or the Roccas, the most dangerous group of islets, without exception, in the whole of the Caribbean Sea.
"Have you heard that the `Juanita' that pirate brigantine which the `Astarte' took among the Roccas has been brought to Port Royal, and that we are putting a new foremast in her and converting her into a topsail schooner?" "No, sir, I have not," I replied. "Indeed I have heard nothing in connection with naval matters, for I have not yet been as far as Kingston." "Umph!