It can readily be supposed that we did not lose any time in getting back to the frigate. Men enough to take care of the prisoners and work the prize were left on board, and the remainder of us pulled to the _Essex_ at full speed, feeling, when we went on deck once more, as if the old ship had escaped some deadly peril. By the time the remainder of our fleet came up, bringing with them the two boats we had sent out during the night, the _Essex_ was lying alongside two fine prizes which had not cost us a single charge of powder. We now had four prizes, in addition to the _Barclay_, and I was arguing with Phil as to how it would be possible to care for them all, and at the same time take any more, when Master Hackett joined us. "I reckon you lads think the old _Essex_ has got about as much as she can stagger under, eh?" he began; and I repeated to him what Phil and I had been saying. "I allow we've got a good big job on our hands, lads," the old man said, speaking thoughtfully, as if weighing well every word, "an' now's come the time when Captain Porter is bound to make port. We're feedin' a crowd of men, an' can't do any great amount of work with so many craft to look after." "Will we go to Valparaiso?" Phil asked, thinking of Benson. "It's beyond an old shellback like me to say, lad; but if I was the captain of this 'ere frigate, I'd think twice before I poked my nose into that port the second time." "Why? They treated us well before." "Ay, an' that's why I'd keep my weather-eye liftin' while we're in these waters. England is a strong nation, an' these 'ere young republics won't dare hold out against her commands very long. There'll be a big lot of kickin' in Great Britain when word is sent there of what we've been doin', an' you'll find that she'll shut every port on the Pacific against us." I did not fully understand all Master Hackett said; but no particular harm was done because of my ignorance, since it matters little whether a boy aboard ship knows the whys and wherefores of everything. However, there must have been good reasoning in the old man's words, since Captain Porter did exactly that which Master Hackett would have advised. When prize crews were on board all our captured ships we were so short of hands that Lieutenant Gamble of the marines was given charge of the _Greenwich_, because we had no naval officer to put in command, and the entire fleet was gotten under way without unnecessary delay. None of us on the gun-deck knew for what port we were bound, until the 19th of June, when we ran into the harbor of Tumbez, and came to anchor. Why it was, none of our old sea lawyers could determine satisfactorily; but not one of the crew was given shore liberty. There was no unusual amount of work to be done on the ships, yet we were kept aboard as close as if there was danger some of us might desert.