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Show ENCOUNTER JV1TH A PIRATE. It was a beautiful evening in the month of June, that uio.-t of a crew and all of the passengers were loutig ing on the d;ck of the Isabella, a m r-chanr. r-chanr. vessel bound for Jamaica frotu ' Ensland. We were among the lesser Antilles on which account a strict w.itch had to be kept all the time. As is frequently the case in these waters, the wind died away with the d .yliiiht. and even thing seemed as calm a- a Spring scene at home. Th water wis hardly ruffl -d; tut still, sudden .-qu ills aie so o.ten the close to lowers of calm spells in the vicinity of the e islands, tht the captain had given orders that all should be m.ide "snug a'ol't " It was i he first trip for me in the we tern waters, and L was very much amused at the many boobies, as they are propel ly called w'io wanted to settle down somewhere on the rising and sleep as contentedly as if they owned the vessel. While anroMtig myself thi owing little pieces of wood an. I other thin-i at rine of these birds that had tab n up his qua' ters lor the niiih'., I heard the man on watch Oi.v : "A .-ail on the laibtord bow." At ttiis lime Mavu'S and pirates were vi ry common in the Oariiibean sta, and 1 en e I experienced a v ry unpleasant stns.tiou at hearing the cry of ""a sail. ' The sun had set some three hours tielore the sail was seen, so that it was d fhjult at tir.-t tu determine what .-.he n:i; hut alter the captain hd tiiken a iMjud t-uivey through his night glass he uiaUe het out to be a sch.oner with royals set , L asked him, with sore fear and trepid ition whit he thought .the was, ano his answer eid not make me teel any n ore eo nfortiible : ' She is the Flying Dutchman, or some such craft," lie said. He still kept a close wat;-h on her movements thiough his glass, as she appeared to be standing 'ight across our torefoot. At. length he criej our to the man at the wheel : "Uring her head up to the wind. Well see what she is." And then turning to the mate he told him to have everything in readiness for the struggle, as he had determined not to let his vessel go eas ly. Soon everything had changed on the Isabella; but the schouuer did not -eem to take any notice of us at all, and suddenly dapp.'ared in the dark ness of the night which was then com in on. The captain was not at all satisfied with this and although he made all the men who were noi on guard go to their hammocks, yet he gave orders for them to be ready at a moment's warning; and he remained up aud kept a continual look out toward all poims of the eompa.-s. As he had anticipated; about oi'C o'clock in the morning he heard the slow call of the watch: "ivail on the starboard quarter ! Suspicious schooner !" The captain had observed the sail atiout the same time, and reeogniz-jd it at once as th same sail of the ear lier part of the night; but what ap peared strange to him was that although al-though the wind had not shifted at all in his sails, still i he craft appeared to be bearing right down on his quarter from the oppo.Mte side. Her royals were square and full, and she was coming on direct and steady as a .-wan. There were now no doubts as to her intern ion, and so there was a piping up of the crew and preparations made lor delen.e. Several ct the pas sengers volunteering to assist, they were armed ami equipped. We had five carronades on the Isabella, Isa-bella, aW they had been in lighting trim, from the first .-ight of the schooner; schoon-er; and now muket, cutlasses and ammunition were handed up from the hold, for the crew and those passengers passen-gers wh had volunteered, so that we pres- nted quite a f ruiidable array against an attacking party. During these preparations the piratical pira-tical crai't, had approached quito near us. when she suddenly bore up- The captain now hailed her '0 know her name and where she was trom. A kind of mixed jargon of Spanish and Portug ese was the only re.-ponse. While this cohoquy was gong on, tho pirate walked around as the Cup-tain Cup-tain explained to me our stt'rn. and assheciUieup on ihe larboard side, the captain ordered one of the stern guns to be fired across her bows. No notice was taken of our salute ; and she again mysteriously disappeared. The cjptain afterwards explained to me that some of the hulls of there schooners were so construcied. that b: turning some sirens tl e sea would rush iuto their false keels or boiti ids, and accelerate then speed iu an ama j zinn degree. j There was no more sleep on the Isa- j bella that night. The mysterious j movements of the schooner and ! her rapid sail ng completely annihilated j all feeling of ease and comtbrt. The . captain was uneasy and excited, und I felt satisfied that the pirate would at- j tack him. j We had been becalmed since sunset and the log shewed that we did not j move half a knot an hour, so that our chance to tun ber down was ve:y slim. i was jut about an hour b.-lore day- I break when our attention wa- aroused by a flash on our starboard quarter, and immediately after it the bail passed whizzing through our rigging. lu a moment all hands were at their places, aud none too soon, for the pi rate was hearing down on us with full s ils. Everything seemed to point to a desperate coufiVt. The pirate wou d try aud mike the attick short, sbrp and deci-ive, and the Da ie la would be on the deieuive altogether, unless the trade wud should spring up. Down she came on u with fall sails, 1 like an eagl.: bearing on its prey. Th captain had giveu his orders to the crew not to make any show of resistance resist-ance until the pirate would throw out the giapplin -irons, preparatory to boarding ' Then." said he, "every man tor idmseli ; and he that kills t lie most of the Portuguese scoundrels shall be rewarded accordingly " At tne time of fi ing she was not over half a miie away, so that soon her bow was across our stem The pirate seemed to think that we were eoiiiir to offer but a feeble resi-tance, for as soon as they parsed our stern their little orui't luined around a- obedient to the heliii-man us a horse to his rid -r, and :ir once made preparations for boarding. Their ppes and irons ere prepired. and the men ;;ll armed like ourselves, with cutlasse- and mu-kets. As soon as the fir-t grapplina-iron was thrown over the stem ol the Isau elia. the captain gave orders to fire- 'e hid runout Uo of the carro nades from their port holes, ami loaded load-ed them with musket-balls wrapped up in canvas; and as soon as the order was s-ivt n, botn of them were dis-chaigcd. dis-chaigcd. Although several c-f the pirate's crew were killed and a number wound ed by this discharge, still the iron was securely fastened, aud two others thrown on board. IJp to this time none of us had used nur small arms, but as soon as the three irons were made fast, which seem- d to be the work of a moment, the commanding officer of the pirate was the fir-t to board the Isabel a, followed by about twenty five as fierce looking desperadoes as I ever met. Day was now dawning, so that we would not have to labor under ihe disadvantage dis-advantage of darkness; and as soon as the pirates' captain jumped on board, a hand to hand conflict ensued: tee muskets were thrown aside, as being of no use, aud the cutlasses were wielded well. The pirates were evidently getting the advantage of us, when one of the men who had gone to the fore top cried out: "Sail on the staiboaid quar ter ! Hiitish man of war !" That ciy was a god send. It re vived the drooping hopes of the Isabel la s crew; and their joy was still further increased when the man again cried out : "She is bearing down on us, full sails." The pirate" now knew that thetr only safety was in rapid flight, for if caught, every man of them would have been hung around the masts of their own schooner, and hence they recreated to the cralt, cut the grappling iron ro( es, and made off. At this moment, cat's paws, the fore runners of the trade-winds, began to creep in fiom the southeast, and the pirate dashed off ike a bird. The island ot San Dominno was on our lee ward about a leatue, and the pi a'e made her course for that shore; but the man of-war crowd'ng her too much, the crew left the schooner and took to their boats. They had hardly got two hundred yards off when the wimle schooner was wrapped in fl imes, and soon a terrific explosion took place, which was the most terrible I ever heard. The Isabella reeled with the shock and when the snnke cleared away, not a vestige of the schooner was to be seen save a few blackened spars. But the destiuction did not stop here. The explosion had evidently j taken place sooner than the pirate-had pirate-had exported, and three of their five ooats w. re swamped by the loice of the eoticussion. Boat; we,e imm diately lowered, I bo' h from our own ship aitd the man-i man-i of-war, to save, if pos-ible, any of the j men thrown out, and also to try and ! rapture the other two boats, but the little tilings skipped along the wave-j wave-j like flying fish, and were too speedy ' for th-'ir pursuer?. Out of t&e fkcu tbst we-ro in the three boats that were swamped, only three survivoi s were picked up, and I among these was the captain of the 1 pip'.te. ; As soon as order wiis retoreu on ' board the Isabella, and a ii-t of killed ; and wounded made out, we stood away j for Port IT oval extremely glad to have j tor a e msurt the man of war. Ou' casualties were three killed and ten wounded. Among the latur the eaptain and 1 held conspicuous places; he with his left ear completer shaven off, and an ugly wound across his shouller and breast and I with a ter rihie gash across my fore ead. Two days after our arrival at Kingston; Kings-ton; we hea d that the three captives had been hun at the yird arm of her .Majesty's man of war. the . |