"Yes, it is, indeed," replied I; "but I will make him smart for it when we arrive." "Shall we ever arrive?" said the Portuguese captain, looking at me and compressing his lips. "I say, my man," said I to the seaman who stood over us with a pistol and a cutlass, "who are you; and what are you? Tell us the truth: are you pirates?" "I never was yet," replied he, "nor do I mean to be; but our skipper says that you are, and that he knew you as soon as you came alongside. That's all I can say about it." "Why, if we are pirates, as he says, and he recognizes us, he must have been in pirates' company, that is clear." "Well; he may have been, for all I know," replied the man. "I don't consider him any very great things; but he is our captain, and we must obey orders." The man now brought forward the other three men who had been left in the boat. They told us that the boat had been cleared; all the provisions, stores, sails, &c. had been taken out of her;--a proof that she had been gutted and then cut adrift;--that all our bundles were down in the captain's cabin, and that the ill-looking urchin, his son, had overhauled them, one after another, and handed to his father all the money that he had found; that they had been searched very carefully; and that they had heard the captain say that we were all to be sent up, one by one, and searched in the same manner;--and so it proved. I was first taken aft to have my pockets rummaged by the little villain, and as soon as I had been led forward and again put into irons, the Portuguese captain and three other seamen were sent for and treated in the same way. We inquired of the men what money they had in their bundles and about their persons. They had each man four doubloons at Rio for wages, and the captain had about forty doubloons. I had five hundred pieces-of-eight: so that, altogether, we had been robbed to the tune of about four hundred pounds sterling, independent of our clothes, which were of some value to us; that is, mine were, at all events. The seamen who guarded us, and who relieved each other every watch, were not at all surly or ill-natured. I asked one of them during the night watch whether he thought the captain would take our lives. "No;" said he, "we will not allow that. You may be pirates, as he says, although we do not think you are; but if pirates, you shall have fair play; that we have all made up our minds to. No hanging first, and trying afterwards."