Meantime, Rumbold seemed to be heartily welcomed by the more sober part of the crew, with the captain, as I judged him, at their head. This captain was a long gaunt man, with a slouching gait, and lank black hair falling straight down upon his shoulders. He had such a squint that it was, as I afterwards knew, a common saying in the ship about Le Chiffon Rouge—for such he, being a Frenchman, was called—that no one could tell at any moment whether he was looking forward or aft, up to the vane on the mast-head, or down into the hold. This ill-favoured personage—for besides his squinting eye he had an ugly hare lip, showing tusks which would not have been out of place in the jaw of a boar,—this ill-favoured personage, I say, protested loudly that his good friend Rumbold must positively sail out the cruize with them—that he would not be denied—and that the hills of Jamaica being in sight, for the mist had rapidly cleared away with the rising of the sun, the two Indians could very well carry home the piragua, while hammocks would be slung aboard for the worthy pearl merchant and his friend—meaning me. The captain was well seconded in these propositions by the chief mate, who was an Englishman, a coarse, fat personage, with bristling red hair, a ferocious expression, and a loud harsh voice. He was called Jerry, and I soon found that he was the real commander of the ship; Le Chiffon Rouge yielding to his judgment in all cases of emergency, and the pair keeping very close together. Now, for my own part, I was much puzzled to know the reason of this welcome, which was so much warmer than we wished for. If the ship was a friendly one, why did not she go her way and leave us to go ours, instead of detaining us prisoners; for that was what the affair actually came to, on board. I saw that Rumbold’s countenance was clouded, and that, although he put a good face on the matter, he would have freely given a round sum for a start of a league or so in the piragua. But wishing was useless. The Indians, who continued in the canoe, were, to their great astonishment, ordered to run for Port Royal, and to take word that Mr. Rumbold had joined the good ship, ‘Saucy Susan,’ for a short run down by the Mosquito coast, and that she might be expected in Jamaica in a few weeks. By this time the morning trade-wind was beginning to blow, and the piragua speedily crept away, wafted by its first faint fannings. Then Jerry suddenly began to bestir himself—