as I was anxious to communicate with them without delay. My orders directed me to speak all cruisers, and besides, as it may be supposed, I was eager to get the duty I had been sent on accomplished, and to return again to Port Royal. When I came on deck again, I found that we had drawn considerably nearer the strangers. I scrutinised them again and again. One of them had a high poop, and I remembered Captain Lambert's remark to me the day I sailed, that this was one of the marks by which I should know his squadron. I thus stood on boldly towards them. As we drew nearer, I saw Grampus eyeing them narrowly. The expression of his countenance showed me that he had considerable doubt on his mind as to their true character. We had now got within three miles of them. "What do you think of them, Grampus?" said I, as I took the glass which I had just before handed to him. "I don't like their looks, sir," he answered. "That headmost frigate is English--so I take it from the look of her hull and the cut of her canvas--but the others I can't make out by no manner of means. I don't think the `Bristol' or the `Lowestoffe' are among them." I had come to the same conclusion that Grampus had; but I wished to confirm my own opinion by his. We stood on for five minutes longer. My suspicions of the character of the strangers increased. "We are running into the lion's jaws, I suspect!" I exclaimed; whereat Grampus and Rockets opened their eyes to know what I meant. "Hoist our colours, and let us learn what they are without further delay." Scarcely had we run our ensign up to the peak than up went the French flag at that of the headmost frigate which at the same time fired a warning gun at us. "Up with the helm! Ease off the main-sheets! Keep her away!" I exclaimed. The orders were quickly obeyed, and away we flew with a strong breeze directly before the wind. I had two very good reasons for endeavouring to escape by keeping before the wind. In the first place, a fore-and-aft vessel has generally a great advantage over a square-rigged ship on that point of sailing, and I might otherwise have drawn the enemy's squadron towards the station of the Aeolus. As she was so much inferior in strength to it, she would easily have fallen into their power, especially as, not being aware that war had broken out, she would have been taken by surprise.