How vast is the difference between beating to windward in a small vessel against a rough sea, and flying gaily on before wind and waves! Cape and headland, and bay and creek, appeared and disappeared, as the nimble Will-o’-the-Wisp went bounding on, kicked as it were by every foaming sea which rolled behind her. You may be sure that we kept a good look-out for the former owners of the schooner, as we ran just past the entrance to the cove, but no human form could we descry among the rocks and woods. Not very far to leeward, we however observed a boat, with a small clumsy sail, making her way along the coast; and, approaching a little nearer, I soon guessed that she was the boat of the Spaniards, which we had given up to them, and that they were probably risking the chances of a run to Cuba. To satisfy our curiosity, however, we kept slightly away and a cry soon overhauled the little craft. She had but four men in her, including he who seemed to have been the captain, and the woman. Their sail was a clumsy thing, made of hides and scraps of canvas, and useless for any other purpose than to drive before the wind. As we approached them, the captain got up and hailed us very vehemently in Spanish. The purport of his discourse, as I gathered it, being whether, after robbing him of his ship, we meant to run down and sink the boat. A movement of the tiller soon made him easy on that point, and he sat down doggedly, with his teeth clenched, scowling at us. The woman clung to him convulsively, and the three men lay stretched in the bottom of the boat, only showing their tangled hair and black eyes above the gunwale. Captain Jem, who as he was a brave man, was a kind one, told me to ask whether they needed any food or water, which I did; but the Spaniard only waved his hand impatiently, muttered somewhat about ‘_Perros Inglesos_’ English dogs; and one or two of the men clenched their fists at us over the side of the boat. All this, however, we could well afford to take in good humour. ‘Well,’ quoth Captain Jem, ‘if they are well victualled, so are we; and if they won’t say aught to us, we have little that I know of to say to them. So, cast loose your brails, my sons, and let’s be jogging.’