"Why, to tell you the truth, we are what are called `Jolly Rovers;' and if you have a mind to come on board, we can find a berth for you, I dare say." "Many thanks," replied I; "but I am not sufficiently fond of the sea, and I should be of no use," (for by this term of Jolly Rover I knew that they were pirates). "That's as you please," replied he; "no harm's done." "No," replied I; "and I thank you for your kind offer, but I cannot live long on board of a vessel. Will you now tell me which is the right track to the English plantations?" "Why," said he, "they bear right out in that direction; and I dare say, if you travel five or six leagues, you will fall aboard of some plantation or another--right in that quarter; follow your nose, old fellow, and you can't go wrong." "Many thanks," I replied; "am I likely to meet your companions?--they may take me for an Indian." "Not in that direction," replied he; "they were astern of me a long way." "Farewell, then, and many thanks," I replied. "Good-bye, old fellow; and the sooner you rub off that paint, the sooner you'll look like a Christian," said the careless rover, as I walked away. "No bad advice," I thought, for I was now determined to make for the English settlements as fast as I could, "and I will do so when I once see an English habitation, but not before; I may fall in with Indians yet." I then set off as fast as I could, and being now inured to running for a long time without stopping, I left the rover a long way behind me in a very short time. I continued my speed till it was dark, when I heard the barking of a dog, which I knew was English, for the Indian dogs do not bark. I then proceeded cautiously and in the direction where I heard the dog bark, and arrived in a quarter of an hour to a cleared ground, with a rail fence round it. "Thank God!" I cried, "that I am at last among my own countrymen." I considered, however, that it would not be prudent to show myself, especially in my Indian paint, at such a time of night, and I therefore sat down under the lee-side of a large tree, and remained there till morning. I then looked about for water, and having found a running stream I washed off my paint, and appeared what I really was, a white man in an Indian dress. I then went up again to the clearing, and looked for the habitation, which I discovered on the top of a hill, about four hundred yards off. The trees were cleared away for about three hundred yards all round it. It was built of heavy logs, let into one another, with one window only, and that very small. The door was still shut. I walked up to it, and tapped at the door. "Who's there?" replied a hoarse voice. "An Englishman, and a stranger," I replied. "I have just escaped from the Indians." "We'll see what you are in a very short time," replied the voice. "James, get me my gun."