"That may be all right from your point of view," he answered, "but it isn't from mine. Great Britain has more than a thousand ships-of-war in her navy, and you haven't more than twenty. It costs our nation a vast deal of money to keep a thousand ships in service, and this privateering doesn't cost your government anything. You keep a navy of no account whatever in time of peace, but when war comes you turn every mud-scow into a privateer, and send her out to capture British ships. I insist that it isn't fair!" I thought I would let him have the last word, and so changed the subject of the conversation. His vessel was a brig of about three hundred tons burden, and loaded with goods for the Canadian market; it was a very fair prize for us, but far from equal in value to the Camperdown. The crew of the brig was transferred to the Marguerite, and placed in the hold with the prisoners already there. I put Haines in command, with a prize-crew, with orders to make the best possible way to New York; with Haines I sent a young fellow named Jackson, who had shipped as an able seaman, but was capable of filling a higher position, as he had been on the sea some eight or ten years, understood navigation, and could work out a ship's position as well as the next man. I promised him promotion as soon as there was a place for him; and in return he declared he would give a good account of himself on the voyage to New York. The next morning we overhauled a fishing-schooner. She had just come out of one of the Canadian ports, and had only caught a few barrels of fish before we came upon her. What she had on board was of little account in the way of a prize, and the vessel was old, and not the most seaworthy craft in the world. As we were inconveniently crowded with prisoners, I decided to convert the fishing-schooner into a cartel, and send her into Halifax. She answered the conditions of a cartel, or what the French call a _bâtiment parlementaire_, as she had no cargo, ammunition, or implement of war on board, and could not possibly do any harm. As quickly as it could be done I had the prisoners transferred to the fisherman. We were careful not to have many of them on deck at once; and if they had made plans for an uprising during the confusion of the transfer, there was no opportunity to carry them out. We took on board most of the fish we found on the schooner, and left her a fair supply of salt provisions, together with all the fish contained in that part of the ocean. The vessel was a dull sailer; and this was all the better for my purpose, as I didn't want her to reach Halifax in a hurry. The prisoners were glad enough at the prospect of thus being liberated, with the possible exception of some of those who meditated the capture of the Marguerite, and her conversion into a prize for themselves.