then at the lieutenant—and then opens his eyes, and looks mighty scarey, without saying anything, with his mouth wide open,—‘I say,’ says the Lieutenant agin, ‘I say, you feller with the ragged breeches, do you mean to swallow my boat—why don’t you answer—what the devil are you doing here?’ The feller scratches his head, and then stammers, ‘I—I—_I_ know _you_—you are him as burnt Mr. Peter’s schooner last year.’ ‘Well,’ says the Lieutenant, ‘what are you going to do with this here timber.’ ‘I’m carrying it down for a raising,’ says he. ‘What!’ says the Lieutenant, ‘do you use ship’s knees and transom beams for house raising in this part of the country? It won’t do, my man. Bear a hand, my lads, and pile all the boards and light stuff in the centre, and we’ll make a bonfire in honour of his most sacred Majesty.’ So we set fire to it, and took the spokesman on board the yawl,—towing the other man in their skiff astarn, intending to release them both when we had got all the information that we wanted out of them. We returned slowly down the bay again, the blazing raft making a great smoke; but as we neared the outlet, what does we see, but them two heavy barges pulling down to cut us off. We had to run some distance nearly parallel with them, an island intervening—so we every moment came nearer to them, and soon within speaking distance. The men gave way hearty—in fear of an English prison, but as we came nearer each other, some of the officers in the English boats recognises Lieutenant ——, cause why—they had been prisoners with us—and hails him—“G——,” says they, ‘you must submit, it’s no use for you to resist, we are four to your one. Come, old feller, don’t make any unnecessary trouble, but give up—you’ve got to knock under.’ The Lieutenant said nothing,—but he was a particular man, and had his own notions upon the subject, for, bidding the men give way, he coolly draws sight upon the spokesman with his rifle, and most sartin, as he was a dead shot, there would have been a vacant commission in His Majesty’s Navy, hadn’t the raftsman, who was frightened out of his wits, caught hold of him by the tails of his coat and dragged him down into the bottom of the boat. The Lieutenant drops his rifle, and catches the feller by his legs and shoulders and heaves him clear of the boat towards the skiff—while we men, dropping our oars, gave them a volley with our muskets, and then laid down to it again. We had taken them by surprise, but as we dashed along ahead, they returned our fire with interest, peppering some of our lads and killing Midshipman Hart outright, who merely uttered an exclamation as his oar flew up above his head, and he fell dead in the bottom of the boat. Well, we see’d the headmost barge all ready, lying on her oars and waiting for us, and as there was no running the gauntlet past her fire, we made for another opening from the bay as didn’t appear to be obstructed, but as we nears