‘Keep her away, I say,’ continued Channing to the man at the helm. ‘That’s it--hold her so,’ his object being still to pass at such a distance from the enemy as to prevent him from bringing his small guns to bear upon the brig; it being evident at the outset that he had no guns equal to that amidships the brig. Jack Herbert had ranged-close up in the barque under the lee of the Constantine and within easy hailing distance. His voice was soon heard on board the brig. ‘Brig-a-hoy!’ ‘Ay, ay, what’s wanting,’ asked Channing through his trumpet. ‘Shall I range up and get a few shots at the stranger, sir, with my short pieces?’ The guns will go off of themselves if we don’t use them soon!’ ‘No--no, Mr. Herbert, keep well away on your present course, we have not got any men to lose by a close action. If we were well manned, we might afford to run down there and make a gallant show of it yard-arm to yardarm.’ ‘Ay, ay,’ said the disappointed Herbert sheering off. The long tom which the Constance carried amidships, proved now as on former occasions to be her salvation; for while the enemy was well equipped with arms, ammunition and also well manned, yet she had no metal of sufficient weight to cope with the brig while at a distance at which the fight began. This distance the Constance by good management kept through the engagement. The shots from the brig were doing fearful execution on board the stranger; splinters were flying from the hull at almost every discharge of the long tom, while her own ineffectual shot fell far short of the intended mark. The unequal battle continued thus but a short time before the ship--which had suffered severely both in hull and rigging as well as by the death of four of her crew and the wounding of of others--like the barque the Constance had taken in the West Indies, found it absolutely necessary to haul down her (colours) in submission. The brig then veered up within hailing distance of the prize, and ordered her to send a boat with the captain on board. This order being promptly complied with, Lovell with half a dozen men armed to the teeth were sent on board to take formal possession of the ship. Lovell, in the execution of this order, found one man on board the prize, whom it gave him much trouble to secure, and who wounded two of the Constance’s crew slightly before he was subdued. This man proved to be the mate of the prize, and he told Lovell although the captain had struck, he had not, and that they should have sunk the ship before he would have done so. But the man was soon bound securely by the seamen, and placed in safe keeping.